NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 vs NVIDIA H100 PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA H100 PCIe wins 17 of 17 benchmarks, averaging 47% faster.
NVIDIA H100 PCIe's numbers are anchored estimates calibrated against our measured cards, pending first-party measurement. Treat small gaps as ties.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Qwen-Image-Edit, where NVIDIA H100 PCIe leads by 94% (1.64 vs 3.18 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen2.5-Coder 14B (16% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA H100 PCIe runs 173 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 17, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 197 | 245.86 | -20% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 162.57 | 194.29 | -16% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 149.96 | 185.87 | -19% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 92.43 | 115.77 | -20% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 89.45 | 103.65 | -14% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 90.64 | 112.57 | -19% |
| gpt-oss-20b tok/s | 212.63 | 251.11 | -15% |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 177.32 | 235.56 | -25% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 45.53 | 54.34 | -16% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 24.4 | 28.44 | -14% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.36 | 29.86 | -45% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 9.975 | 19.125 | -48% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.993 | 3.686 | -46% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 4.264 | 7.821 | -45% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 1.64 | 3.18 | -48% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 8.95 | 15.09 | -41% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.66 | 1.15 | -43% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 is faster on 0 of 9; NVIDIA H100 PCIe on 9.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 3.7 min | 1.8 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.06x faster | $0.085 vs $0.059 |
| 60-second AI short film | 4.7 min | 2.5 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.88x faster | $0.108 vs $0.082 |
| 6-panel comic page | 6 min | 2.7 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.21x faster | $0.139 vs $0.090 |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 7.6 min | 3.4 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 2.23x faster | $0.175 vs $0.112 |
| Full codebase review | 11.2 min | 9.7 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.15x faster | $0.259 vs $0.322 |
| Short social clips | 15.1 min | 7.9 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.92x faster | $0.350 vs $0.261 |
| Long-form article batch | 19.1 min | 16.6 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.15x faster | $0.443 vs $0.550 |
| Product photo shoot | 23.5 min | 12.2 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.92x faster | $0.543 vs $0.404 |
| Photo restoration batch | 50.8 min | 27.1 min | NVIDIA H100 PCIe 1.87x faster | $1.177 vs $0.900 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA H100 PCIe finishes 7 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 SXM4 | $1.390 |
| NVIDIA H100 PCIe | $1.990 |
NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 is 1.43x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 80GB | 80GB |
| Transistors | 54,200M | 80,000M |
| Die size | 826 mm² | 814 mm² |
| Process node | 7 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 65.6 M/mm² | 98.3 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere | Hopper |
| Memory bandwidth | 2039 GB/s | 2000 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,410 MHz | 1,755 MHz |
| TDP | 400 W | 350 W |
| Launch MSRP | $17,000 | $25,000 |
| Release | 2020-11-16 | 2022-03-22 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 or NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- NVIDIA H100 PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 17 of 17 benchmarks in our suite with an average 47% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 and NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 has 80GB VRAM and a 400W TDP, while NVIDIA H100 PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 350W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 and NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA H100 PCIe fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4. 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 SXM4 and NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- Qwen-Image-Edit: NVIDIA H100 PCIe leads by roughly 94% (1.64 vs 3.18 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4 full review · NVIDIA H100 PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings