Which is better for ai & machine learning: GeForce RTX 5080 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 82.6% advantage.

What are the main hardware differences between GeForce RTX 5080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

GeForce RTX 5080 has 16GB VRAM and a 360W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.

Does VRAM matter more than speed between GeForce RTX 5080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 6 more of our 12 workloads than GeForce RTX 5080. 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 GeForce RTX 5080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

Z-Image Turbo: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 244% (2.7 vs 9.3 images/min) in our testing.

GeForce RTX 5080 vs NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 11 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 82.6% faster.

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

What the numbers say

The gap is widest in Z-Image Turbo, where NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by 244% (2.7 vs 9.3 images/min); the closest fight is Llama 3.1 8B (7% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 12 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 6, models that don't fit score zero.

Benchmark results head-to-head

Benchmark	GeForce RTX 5080	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	Difference
Qwen3 4B tok/s	215.89	198.27	+9%
Llama 3.1 8B tok/s	150.71	161.75	-7%
Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s	81.97	88.36	-7%
Qwen3 32B tok/s	0	43.77	n/a
Llama 3.3 70B tok/s	0	22.89	n/a
Stable Diffusion XL images/min	8.86	16.8	-47%
Z-Image Turbo images/min	2.7	9.3	-71%
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	3.34	8.51	-61%
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. GeForce RTX 5080 is faster on 0 of 1; NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe on 1.

Workflow	GeForce RTX 5080	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	Difference	Cost per run
Full codebase review	12.2 min	11.3 min	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 1.08x faster	$0.027 vs $0.224

Renting by the hour, GeForce RTX 5080 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
GeForce RTX 5080	$0.135
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	$1.190

GeForce RTX 5080 is 8.81x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.

Specifications compared

	GeForce RTX 5080	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe
VRAM	16GB	80GB
Architecture	Blackwell (GB203)	Ampere
Memory bandwidth	960 GB/s	1935 GB/s
Boost clock	2,617 MHz	1,410 MHz
TDP	360 W	300 W
Launch MSRP	$999	$15,000
Release	2025-01-30	2021-06-28

FAQ

Which is better for ai & machine learning: GeForce RTX 5080 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 82.6% advantage.
What are the main hardware differences between GeForce RTX 5080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: GeForce RTX 5080 has 16GB VRAM and a 360W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
Does VRAM matter more than speed between GeForce RTX 5080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 6 more of our 12 workloads than GeForce RTX 5080. 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 GeForce RTX 5080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: Z-Image Turbo: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 244% (2.7 vs 9.3 images/min) in our testing.

GeForce RTX 5080 full review · NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings