NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA RTX A5000, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA RTX A5000 wins 6 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 15.1% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA RTX A5000 leads by 57% (4.76 vs 7.46 images/min); the closest fight is Llama 3.1 8B (5% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA RTX A5000 runs 8 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 3, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA RTX A5000 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 184.08 | 171.68 | +7% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 125.85 | 119.86 | +5% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 0 | 64.89 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 30.49 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 4.76 | 7.46 | -36% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 4.05 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 0 | 2.7 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0.24 | n/a |
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | $0.029 |
| NVIDIA RTX A5000 | $0.160 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is 5.52x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA RTX A5000 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 10GB | 24GB |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Ampere (GA102 derivative) |
| Memory bandwidth | 760 GB/s | 768 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,710 MHz | 1,695 MHz |
| TDP | 320 W | 230 W |
| Launch MSRP | $699 | $2,250 |
| Release | 2020-09-17 | 2021-04-12 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or NVIDIA RTX A5000?
- NVIDIA RTX A5000 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 6 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 15.1% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA RTX A5000?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10GB VRAM and a 320W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX A5000 has 24GB VRAM and a 230W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA RTX A5000?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA RTX A5000 fits 5 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. A model that exceeds VRAM doesn't run slower, it doesn't run at all, so the card that fits the model wins that workload outright.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA RTX A5000?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA RTX A5000 leads by roughly 57% (4.76 vs 7.46 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 full review · NVIDIA RTX A5000 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings