NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe vs NVIDIA H100 PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA H100 PCIe wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 63.6% faster.
NVIDIA H100 PCIe's numbers are anchored estimates calibrated against our measured cards, pending first-party measurement. Treat small gaps as ties.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Qwen-Image-Edit, where NVIDIA H100 PCIe leads by 106% (1.54 vs 3.18 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen2.5-Coder 14B (17% apart).
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 198.27 | 245.86 | -19% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 161.75 | 194.29 | -17% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 88.36 | 103.65 | -15% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 43.77 | 54.34 | -19% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 22.89 | 28.44 | -20% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.8 | 29.86 | -44% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 9.3 | 19.125 | -51% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 3.964 | 7.821 | -49% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.843 | 3.686 | -50% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 1.54 | 3.18 | -52% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 8.51 | 15.09 | -44% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.61 | 1.15 | -47% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe is faster on 0 of 9; NVIDIA H100 PCIe on 9.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 3.7 min | 1.8 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.05x faster | $0.072 vs $0.059 |
| 60-second AI short film | 4.6 min | 2.5 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.84x faster | $0.090 vs $0.082 |
| 6-panel comic page | 5.9 min | 2.7 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.19x faster | $0.118 vs $0.090 |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 7.7 min | 3.4 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.26x faster | $0.152 vs $0.112 |
| Full codebase review | 11.3 min | 9.7 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.17x faster | $0.224 vs $0.322 |
| Short social clips | 15.7 min | 7.9 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.99x faster | $0.311 vs $0.261 |
| Long-form article batch | 20.4 min | 16.6 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.23x faster | $0.404 vs $0.550 |
| Product photo shoot | 24.8 min | 12.2 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.03x faster | $0.491 vs $0.404 |
| Photo restoration batch | 54.7 min | 27.1 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.02x faster | $1.085 vs $0.900 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA H100 PCIe finishes 7 of 9 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | $1.190 |
| NVIDIA H100 PCIe | $1.990 |
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe is 1.67x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 80GB | 80GB |
| Transistors | 54,200M | 80,000M |
| Die size | 826 mm² | 814 mm² |
| Process node | 7 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 65.6 M/mm² | 98.3 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere | Hopper |
| Memory bandwidth | 1935 GB/s | 2000 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,410 MHz | 1,755 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 350 W |
| Launch MSRP | $15,000 | $25,000 |
| Release | 2021-06-28 | 2022-03-22 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe or NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- NVIDIA H100 PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 63.6% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA H100 PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 350W TDP.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- Qwen-Image-Edit: NVIDIA H100 PCIe leads by roughly 106% (1.54 vs 3.18 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · NVIDIA H100 PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings