Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe or NVIDIA T4?

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 10 of 10 benchmarks in our suite with an average 378.5% advantage.

What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA T4?

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA T4 has 16GB VRAM and a 70W TDP.

Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA T4?

For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 44 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA T4. 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 T4?

Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 612% (16.8 vs 2.36 images/min) in our testing.

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe vs NVIDIA T4, AI & Machine Learning Comparison

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 10 of 10 benchmarks, averaging 378.5% faster.

Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.

What the numbers say

The gap is widest in Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by 612% (16.8 vs 2.36 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (193% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 111 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 T4	Difference
Qwen3 4B tok/s	198.27	67.71	+193%
Llama 3.1 8B tok/s	161.75	35.01	+362%
Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s	88.36	19.76	+347%
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	2.36	+612%
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
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 T4 on 0.

Workflow	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	NVIDIA T4	Difference
Full codebase review	11.3 min	50.7 min	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 4.48x faster

Specifications compared

	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	NVIDIA T4
VRAM	80GB	16GB
Architecture	Ampere	Turing
Memory bandwidth	1935 GB/s	320 GB/s
Boost clock	1,410 MHz	1,590 MHz
TDP	300 W	70 W
Launch MSRP	$15,000	$2,299
Release	2021-06-28	2018-09-13

FAQ

Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe or NVIDIA T4?: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 10 of 10 benchmarks in our suite with an average 378.5% advantage.
What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA T4?: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA T4 has 16GB VRAM and a 70W TDP.
Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe and NVIDIA T4?: For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 44 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA T4. 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 T4?: Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 612% (16.8 vs 2.36 images/min) in our testing.

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · NVIDIA T4 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings