NVIDIA B200 vs NVIDIA L40, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA B200 wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 388% faster.
NVIDIA L40'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 LTX-Video (distilled), where NVIDIA B200 leads by 927% (26.8 vs 2.61 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (50% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA L40 runs 145 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 11, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA B200 | NVIDIA L40 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 317.93 | 211.33 | +50% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 274.41 | 135.12 | +103% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 150.96 | 74.27 | +103% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 78.56 | 34.08 | +131% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 44.54 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 46.12 | 11.2 | +312% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 32.325 | 5.625 | +475% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 13.136 | 2.464 | +433% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 5.721 | 1.114 | +414% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 4.86 | 0.48 | +913% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 26.8 | 2.61 | +927% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 1.88 | 0.37 | +408% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA B200 is faster on 8 of 8; NVIDIA L40 on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA B200 | NVIDIA L40 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 89 s | 7 min | NVIDIA B200 4.69x faster | $0.149 vs $0.080 |
| 60-second AI short film | 1.9 min | 13 min | NVIDIA B200 6.95x faster | $0.186 vs $0.149 |
| 6-panel comic page | 2.3 min | 9.1 min | NVIDIA B200 3.90x faster | $0.233 vs $0.105 |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 2.9 min | 12.1 min | NVIDIA B200 4.24x faster | $0.285 vs $0.140 |
| 10 short social clips | 5.6 min | 28.2 min | NVIDIA B200 5.03x faster | $0.558 vs $0.324 |
| Full codebase review | 6.6 min | 13.5 min | NVIDIA B200 2.03x faster | $0.660 vs $0.155 |
| 40-product photo shoot | 8.4 min | 41.1 min | NVIDIA B200 4.90x faster | $0.836 vs $0.473 |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 17.8 min | 1 h 30 min | NVIDIA B200 5.07x faster | $1.773 vs $1.038 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA L40 finishes 8 of 8 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA B200 | $5.980 |
| NVIDIA L40 | $0.690 |
NVIDIA L40 is 8.67x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA B200 | NVIDIA L40 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 192GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Blackwell | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 8 TB/s | 864 GB/s |
| Boost clock | n/a | 2,490 MHz |
| TDP | 1000 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $40,000 | $7,000 |
| Release | 2025-02-01 | 2022-10-13 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA B200 or NVIDIA L40?
- NVIDIA B200 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 388% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA B200 and NVIDIA L40?
- NVIDIA B200 has 192GB VRAM and a 1000W TDP, while NVIDIA L40 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA B200 and NVIDIA L40?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA L40 fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA B200. 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 B200 and NVIDIA L40?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA B200 leads by roughly 927% (26.8 vs 2.61 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA B200 full review · NVIDIA L40 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings