NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe vs NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation), AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 11 of 11 benchmarks, averaging 179% 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 313% (8.51 vs 2.06 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (80% 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 | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 198.27 | 110.18 | +80% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 161.75 | 66.59 | +143% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 88.36 | 36.34 | +143% |
| 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 | 6.56 | +156% |
| 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 | 2.06 | +313% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.61 | 0.18 | +239% |
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 4000 (Ada Generation) on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation) | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 11.3 min | 27.5 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 2.43x faster | $0.224 vs $0.092 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA RTX 4000 (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 4000 (Ada Generation) | $0.200 |
NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation) is 5.95x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation) | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 80GB | 20GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 1935 GB/s | 360 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,410 MHz | 2,175 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 130 W |
| Launch MSRP | $15,000 | $1,250 |
| Release | 2021-06-28 | 2023-08-09 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe or NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation)?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 11 of 11 benchmarks in our suite with an average 179% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation)?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation) has 20GB VRAM and a 130W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation)?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 5 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA RTX 4000 (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 4000 (Ada Generation)?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 313% (8.51 vs 2.06 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · NVIDIA RTX 4000 (Ada Generation) full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings