Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 or NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 11 of 11 benchmarks in our suite with an average 60.1% advantage.

What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has 12GB VRAM and a 200W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.

Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 8 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070. 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 4070 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

Qwen2.5-Coder 14B: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 74% (50.74 vs 88.36 tok/s) in our testing.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 vs NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 11 of 11 benchmarks, averaging 60.1% faster.

Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.

What the numbers say

The gap is widest in Qwen2.5-Coder 14B, where NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by 74% (50.74 vs 88.36 tok/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (32% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 12 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 4070	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	Difference
Qwen3 4B tok/s	149.68	198.27	-25%
Llama 3.1 8B tok/s	93.16	161.75	-42%
Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s	50.74	88.36	-43%
Qwen3 32B tok/s	0	43.77	n/a
Llama 3.3 70B tok/s	0	22.89	n/a
Z-Image Turbo images/min	0	9.3	n/a
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	0	8.51	n/a
Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s	0	0.61	n/a

Whole-job comparison

How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is faster on 0 of 1; NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe on 1.

Workflow	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	Difference	Cost per run
Full codebase review	19.7 min	11.3 min	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 1.74x faster	$0.025 vs $0.224

Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 finishes 1 of 1 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.

Cost to rent

Card	Per hour
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	$0.076
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	$1.190

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is 15.66x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.

Specifications compared

	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe
VRAM	12GB	80GB
Architecture	Ada Lovelace	Ampere
Memory bandwidth	504 GB/s	1935 GB/s
Boost clock	2,475 MHz	1,410 MHz
TDP	200 W	300 W
Launch MSRP	$599	$15,000
Release	2023-04-13	2021-06-28

FAQ

Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 or NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 11 of 11 benchmarks in our suite with an average 60.1% advantage.
What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has 12GB VRAM and a 200W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 8 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070. 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 4070 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: Qwen2.5-Coder 14B: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 74% (50.74 vs 88.36 tok/s) in our testing.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 full review · NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings