NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 11 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 96.6% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in LTX-Video (distilled), where NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by 292% (2.17 vs 8.51 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (4% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 12 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 8, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 206.67 | 198.27 | +4% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 144.9 | 161.75 | -10% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 78.79 | 88.36 | -11% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 37.95 | 43.77 | -13% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 22.89 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 7.46 | 16.8 | -56% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 3.825 | 9.3 | -59% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 3.964 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 1.843 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 1.54 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 2.17 | 8.51 | -75% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.22 | 0.61 | -64% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is faster on 0 of 4; NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe on 4.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 8.3 min | 3.7 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 2.27x faster | $0.010 vs $0.072 |
| Full codebase review | 12.7 min | 11.3 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 1.12x faster | $0.015 vs $0.224 |
| 60-second AI short film | 15.2 min | 4.6 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 3.33x faster | $0.017 vs $0.090 |
| 10 short social clips | 42.4 min | 15.7 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 2.70x faster | $0.049 vs $0.311 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 finishes 4 of 4 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | $0.069 |
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | $1.190 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is 17.25x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB | 80GB |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Ampere |
| Memory bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 1935 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,695 MHz | 1,410 MHz |
| TDP | 350 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,499 | $15,000 |
| Release | 2020-09-24 | 2021-06-28 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 11 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 96.6% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 has 24GB VRAM and a 350W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 4 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. 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 3090 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 292% (2.17 vs 8.51 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 full review · NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings