NVIDIA H100 NVL vs NVIDIA H100 PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA H100 NVL wins 17 of 17 benchmarks, averaging 17% faster.
Both cards' 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 Qwen2.5-Coder-14B, where NVIDIA H100 NVL leads by 21% (125.63 vs 103.65 tok/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 30B A3B (15% apart).
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA H100 NVL | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3-4B tok/s | 282.91 | 245.86 | +15% |
| Llama-3.1-8B tok/s | 231.86 | 194.29 | +19% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 221.81 | 185.87 | +19% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 135.74 | 115.77 | +17% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder-14B tok/s | 125.63 | 103.65 | +21% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 135.54 | 112.57 | +20% |
| gpt-oss-20b tok/s | 296.75 | 251.11 | +18% |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 270.25 | 235.56 | +15% |
| Qwen3-32B tok/s | 64.06 | 54.34 | +18% |
| Llama-3.3-70B tok/s | 32.79 | 28.44 | +15% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 34.58 | 29.86 | +16% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 4.264 | 3.686 | +16% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 9.064 | 7.821 | +16% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 3.68 | 3.18 | +16% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 22.125 | 19.125 | +16% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 17.47 | 15.09 | +16% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 1.33 | 1.15 | +16% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA H100 NVL is faster on 9 of 9; NVIDIA H100 PCIe on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA H100 NVL | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 89 s | 1.8 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.20x faster | $0.064 vs $0.059 |
| 60-second AI short film | 2.1 min | 2.5 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.18x faster | $0.091 vs $0.082 |
| 6-panel comic page | 2.3 min | 2.7 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.18x faster | $0.099 vs $0.090 |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 2.9 min | 3.4 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.16x faster | $0.126 vs $0.112 |
| Short social clips | 6.8 min | 7.9 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.16x faster | $0.292 vs $0.261 |
| Full codebase review | 8 min | 9.7 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.21x faster | $0.345 vs $0.322 |
| Product photo shoot | 10.5 min | 12.2 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.16x faster | $0.455 vs $0.404 |
| Long-form article batch | 14.3 min | 16.6 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.16x faster | $0.617 vs $0.550 |
| Photo restoration batch | 23.5 min | 27.1 min | NVIDIA H100 NVL 1.16x faster | $1.012 vs $0.900 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA H100 PCIe finishes 9 of 9 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA H100 NVL | $2.590 |
| NVIDIA H100 PCIe | $1.990 |
NVIDIA H100 PCIe is 1.30x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA H100 NVL | NVIDIA H100 PCIe | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 94GB | 80GB |
| Transistors | 80,000M | 80,000M |
| Die size | 814 mm² | 814 mm² |
| Process node | 4 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 98.3 M/mm² | 98.3 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Hopper | Hopper |
| Memory bandwidth | 3938 GB/s | 2000 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,785 MHz | 1,755 MHz |
| TDP | 400 W | 350 W |
| Launch MSRP | $29,000 | $25,000 |
| Release | 2023-03-21 | 2022-03-22 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA H100 NVL or NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- NVIDIA H100 NVL performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 17 of 17 benchmarks in our suite with an average 17% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA H100 NVL and NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- NVIDIA H100 NVL has 94GB VRAM and a 400W TDP, while NVIDIA H100 PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 350W TDP.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA H100 NVL and NVIDIA H100 PCIe?
- Qwen2.5-Coder-14B: NVIDIA H100 NVL leads by roughly 21% (125.63 vs 103.65 tok/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA H100 NVL full review · NVIDIA H100 PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings