NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe vs NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 11 of 11 benchmarks, averaging 323% 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 512% (8.51 vs 1.39 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (180% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 12 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 5, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 198.27 | 70.88 | +180% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 161.75 | 43.08 | +275% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 88.36 | 23.35 | +278% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 43.77 | 0 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 22.89 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.8 | 3.58 | +369% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 3.964 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.843 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 1.54 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 8.51 | 1.39 | +512% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.61 | 0 | n/a |
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 1; NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 11.3 min | 42.8 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 3.78x faster | $0.224 vs $0.171 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation 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 A100 80GB PCIe | $1.190 |
| NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation | $0.240 |
NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation is 4.96x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 80GB | 16GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 1935 GB/s | 224 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,410 MHz | 2,130 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 70 W |
| Launch MSRP | $15,000 | $625 |
| Release | 2021-06-28 | 2024-02-12 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe or NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 11 of 11 benchmarks in our suite with an average 323% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation has 16GB VRAM and a 70W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 6 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation. 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 RTX 2000 Ada Generation?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 512% (8.51 vs 1.39 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings