NVIDIA B300 vs NVIDIA L40, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA B300 wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 561.7% 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 Qwen-Image-Edit, where NVIDIA B300 leads by 1596% (8.14 vs 0.48 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (58% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA L40 runs 140 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 B300 | NVIDIA L40 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 333.34 | 211.33 | +58% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 287.23 | 135.12 | +113% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 158.49 | 74.27 | +113% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 83.68 | 34.08 | +146% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 47.97 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 29.2 | 11.2 | +161% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 39.675 | 5.625 | +605% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 20.807 | 2.464 | +744% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 10.329 | 1.114 | +827% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 8.14 | 0.48 | +1596% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 31.87 | 2.61 | +1121% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 2.94 | 0.37 | +695% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA B300 is faster on 8 of 8; NVIDIA L40 on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA B300 | NVIDIA L40 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 1.5 min | 7 min | NVIDIA B300 4.66x faster | $0.174 vs $0.080 |
| 6-panel comic page | 2 min | 9.1 min | NVIDIA B300 4.51x faster | $0.234 vs $0.105 |
| 60-second AI short film | 2.2 min | 13 min | NVIDIA B300 5.97x faster | $0.251 vs $0.149 |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 2.2 min | 12.1 min | NVIDIA B300 5.45x faster | $0.257 vs $0.140 |
| 10 short social clips | 4.7 min | 28.2 min | NVIDIA B300 5.95x faster | $0.548 vs $0.324 |
| 40-product photo shoot | 6.1 min | 41.1 min | NVIDIA B300 6.78x faster | $0.701 vs $0.473 |
| Full codebase review | 6.3 min | 13.5 min | NVIDIA B300 2.13x faster | $0.730 vs $0.155 |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 10.2 min | 1 h 30 min | NVIDIA B300 8.86x faster | $1.178 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 B300 | $6.940 |
| NVIDIA L40 | $0.690 |
NVIDIA L40 is 10.06x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA B300 | NVIDIA L40 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 288GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Blackwell Ultra | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 8 TB/s | 864 GB/s |
| Boost clock | n/a | 2,490 MHz |
| TDP | 1400 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $40,000 | $7,000 |
| Release | 2025-11-01 | 2022-10-13 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA B300 or NVIDIA L40?
- NVIDIA B300 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 561.7% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA B300 and NVIDIA L40?
- NVIDIA B300 has 288GB VRAM and a 1400W TDP, while NVIDIA L40 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA B300 and NVIDIA L40?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA L40 fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA B300. 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 B300 and NVIDIA L40?
- Qwen-Image-Edit: NVIDIA B300 leads by roughly 766% (8.14 vs 0.48 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA B300 full review · NVIDIA L40 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings