NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe vs NVIDIA H200, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA H200 wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 107.5% 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 H200 leads by 149% (9.3 vs 23.175 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (61% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 150 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 12, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA H200 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 198.27 | 318.84 | -38% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 161.75 | 268.31 | -40% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 88.36 | 148.43 | -40% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 43.77 | 76.58 | -43% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 22.89 | 42.66 | -46% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.8 | 37.16 | -55% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 9.3 | 23.175 | -60% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 3.964 | 9.514 | -58% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.843 | 4.393 | -58% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 1.54 | 3.76 | -59% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 8.51 | 17.87 | -52% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.61 | 1.41 | -57% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe is faster on 1 of 9; NVIDIA H200 on 8.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA H200 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 3.7 min | 3.9 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 1.07x faster | $0.072 vs $0.234 |
| 60-second AI short film | 4.6 min | 3.9 min | NVIDIA H200 1.17x faster | $0.090 vs $0.233 |
| 6-panel comic page | 5.9 min | 3.2 min | NVIDIA H200 1.84x faster | $0.118 vs $0.192 |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 7.7 min | 3.9 min | NVIDIA H200 1.96x faster | $0.152 vs $0.234 |
| Full codebase review | 11.3 min | 6.7 min | NVIDIA H200 1.68x faster | $0.224 vs $0.403 |
| 10 short social clips | 15.7 min | 10 min | NVIDIA H200 1.57x faster | $0.311 vs $0.598 |
| 20 long-form articles | 20.4 min | 10.9 min | NVIDIA H200 1.86x faster | $0.404 vs $0.655 |
| 40-product photo shoot | 24.8 min | 11.2 min | NVIDIA H200 2.22x faster | $0.491 vs $0.668 |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 54.7 min | 23.3 min | NVIDIA H200 2.34x faster | $1.085 vs $1.396 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe finishes 9 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 H200 | $3.590 |
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe is 3.02x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA H200 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 80GB | 141GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Hopper |
| Memory bandwidth | 1935 GB/s | 4800 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,410 MHz | 1,980 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 700 W |
| Launch MSRP | $15,000 | $31,000 |
| Release | 2021-06-28 | 2024-03-18 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe or NVIDIA H200?
- NVIDIA H200 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 107.5% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA H200?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA H200 has 141GB VRAM and a 700W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA H200?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA H200. 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 A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA H200?
- Z-Image Turbo: NVIDIA H200 leads by roughly 149% (9.3 vs 23.175 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · NVIDIA H200 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings