NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe vs NVIDIA RTX A5000, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 94.3% 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 215% (8.51 vs 2.7 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (15% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 12 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 8, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX A5000 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 198.27 | 171.68 | +15% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 161.75 | 119.86 | +35% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 88.36 | 64.89 | +36% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 43.77 | 30.49 | +44% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 22.89 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.8 | 7.46 | +125% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 9.3 | 4.05 | +130% |
| 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 | 2.7 | +215% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.61 | 0.24 | +154% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe is faster on 4 of 4; NVIDIA RTX A5000 on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX A5000 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 3.7 min | 7 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 1.91x faster | $0.072 vs $0.019 |
| 60-second AI short film | 4.6 min | 11.8 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 2.58x faster | $0.090 vs $0.031 |
| Full codebase review | 11.3 min | 15.4 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 1.36x faster | $0.224 vs $0.041 |
| 10 short social clips | 15.7 min | 37.2 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 2.37x faster | $0.311 vs $0.099 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA RTX A5000 finishes 4 of 4 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 A5000 | $0.160 |
NVIDIA RTX A5000 is 7.44x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | NVIDIA RTX A5000 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 80GB | 24GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere (GA102 derivative) |
| Memory bandwidth | 1935 GB/s | 768 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,410 MHz | 1,695 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 230 W |
| Launch MSRP | $15,000 | $2,250 |
| Release | 2021-06-28 | 2021-04-12 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe or NVIDIA RTX A5000?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 94.3% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA RTX A5000?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX A5000 has 24GB VRAM and a 230W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA RTX A5000?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 4 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA RTX A5000. 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 A5000?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 215% (8.51 vs 2.7 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · NVIDIA RTX A5000 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings