NVIDIA L40S vs NVIDIA RTX A6000, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA L40S wins 9 of 9 benchmarks, averaging 34.1% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in FLUX.1 dev, where NVIDIA L40S leads by 77% (3.836 vs 2.164 images/min); the closest fight is Llama-3.3-70B (5% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA RTX A6000 runs 152 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 9, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA L40S | NVIDIA RTX A6000 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3-4B tok/s | 212.05 | 184.34 | +15% |
| Llama-3.1-8B tok/s | 135.51 | 124.87 | +9% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder-14B tok/s | 74.6 | 68.51 | +9% |
| Qwen3-32B tok/s | 34.44 | 32.18 | +7% |
| Llama-3.3-70B tok/s | 16.49 | 15.73 | +5% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 17.02 | 10.02 | +70% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 8.325 | 5.4 | +54% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 3.836 | 2.164 | +77% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.693 | 1.05 | +61% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA L40S is faster on 7 of 7; NVIDIA RTX A6000 on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA L40S | NVIDIA RTX A6000 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 4.1 min | 7.1 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.74x faster | $0.053 vs $0.039 |
| 6-panel comic page | 6.5 min | 12.1 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.86x faster | $0.086 vs $0.067 |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 8.4 min | 15.2 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.82x faster | $0.110 vs $0.084 |
| Full codebase review | 13.5 min | 14.6 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.08x faster | $0.177 vs $0.080 |
| 40-product photo shoot | 26.7 min | 45.5 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.70x faster | $0.352 vs $0.250 |
| 20 long-form articles | 28.5 min | 29.7 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.04x faster | $0.375 vs $0.163 |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 59.6 min | 1 h 37 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.63x faster | $0.784 vs $0.533 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA RTX A6000 finishes 7 of 7 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA L40S | $0.790 |
| NVIDIA RTX A6000 | $0.330 |
NVIDIA RTX A6000 is 2.39x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA L40S | NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 48GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |
| Memory bandwidth | 864 GB/s | 768 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,520 MHz | 1,860 MHz |
| TDP | 350 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $7,500 | $4,650 |
| Release | 2023-08-08 | 2020-10-05 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA L40S or NVIDIA RTX A6000?
- NVIDIA L40S performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 9 of 9 benchmarks in our suite with an average 34.1% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA L40S and NVIDIA RTX A6000?
- NVIDIA L40S has 48GB VRAM and a 350W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX A6000 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA L40S and NVIDIA RTX A6000?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA RTX A6000 fits 8 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA L40S. 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 L40S and NVIDIA RTX A6000?
- FLUX.1 dev: NVIDIA L40S leads by roughly 77% (3.836 vs 2.164 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA L40S full review · NVIDIA RTX A6000 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings