Comparison · The same GPU with twice the memory

# A100 PCIe 80 GB or A100 PCIe 40 GB?

Both are dedicated, both are monthly, both open without an identity check. What separates them is memory, bandwidth and $699 a month — and which of those matters depends entirely on what you intend to run.

- $1,091/mo A100 PCIe 80 GB, one card
- $392/mo A100 PCIe 40 GB, one card
- 80 vs 40 GB memory per card
- 1.2× bandwidth gap

## The short answer

Which one, and when

- **Pick the A100 PCIe 80 GB:** when your model needs more than 40 GB on a single card. That is a threshold, not a preference — below it, the extra $699/month buys you nothing.
- **Pick the A100 PCIe 40 GB:** when 40 GB holds your model. It saves $699/month, and memory you do not use is memory you paid for.
- **Neither, if:** your model does not fit on a single card of either. Sharding costs synchronisation at every layer — see the [interconnect guide](https://gpuserver.io/guides/nvlink-vs-pcie) before buying a multi-GPU node.

## Side by side

**A100 PCIe 80 GB compared with A100 PCIe 40 GB**

|  | [A100 PCIe 80 GB](https://gpuserver.io/gpu/a100-80gb) | [A100 PCIe 40 GB](https://gpuserver.io/gpu/a100-40gb) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere | Same generation |
| Memory per card | 80 GB HBM2e | 40 GB HBM2 | 40 GB in favour of the A100 PCIe 80 GB |
| Memory bandwidth Predicts generation speed | 1,935 GB/s | 1,555 GB/s | 1.24× in favour of the A100 PCIe 80 GB |
| Form factor | PCIe add-in card | PCIe add-in card | Same |
| Node sizes | 1×, 2×, 4×, 8× | 1×, 2×, 4×, 8× | Up to 640 GB in one node |
| From, per month | $1,091 | $392 | $699/month apart |

## Price at every node size

**Monthly price of both cards at each available node size**

| Node | A100 PCIe 80 GB | A100 PCIe 40 GB | Total VRAM |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 × GPU | $1,091/mo | $392/mo | 80 GB / 40 GB | [A100 PCIe 80 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-80-x1) [A100 PCIe 40 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-40-x1) |
| 2 × GPU | $2,159/mo | $802/mo | 160 GB / 80 GB | [A100 PCIe 80 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-80-x2) [A100 PCIe 40 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-40-x2) |
| 4 × GPU | $4,157/mo | $1,556/mo | 320 GB / 160 GB | [A100 PCIe 80 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-80-x4) [A100 PCIe 40 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-40-x4) |
| 8 × GPU | $7,906/mo | $2,983/mo | 640 GB / 320 GB | [A100 PCIe 80 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-80-x8) [A100 PCIe 40 GB](https://gpuserver.io/configure?c=a100-40-x8) |

## What each one holds on a single card

At 8k context, best precision that fits. This is the difference that decides a purchase — not the specification sheet.

### Only the A100 PCIe 80 GB

- **Llama 3.3 70B** — 4-bit (AWQ, GPTQ), ~25 tok/s

### Only the A100 PCIe 40 GB

Nothing. The A100 PCIe 80 GB holds everything the A100 PCIe 40 GB does.

**The same model on both: Qwen 3 32B.** On the A100 PCIe 80 GB, roughly 14 tokens/second at BF16 / FP16; on the A100 PCIe 40 GB, roughly 22. Single-stream and deliberately conservative — with continuous batching the aggregate is several times higher on both. Treat the *ratio* as the useful number, not the absolute.

## Cost per GB and per TB/s

Two ratios that cut through the specification sheet. The first tells you what memory costs; the second what speed costs.

**Cost per gigabyte of VRAM and per terabyte per second of bandwidth**

| Card | $/GB of VRAM, per month | $/TB per second, per month | Better at |
|---|---|---|---|
| [A100 PCIe 80 GB](https://gpuserver.io/gpu/a100-80gb) | $13.64 | $564 | Neither |
| [A100 PCIe 40 GB](https://gpuserver.io/gpu/a100-40gb) | $9.80 | $252 | Both ratios |

These ratios rank cards; they do not choose one. A card that is cheaper per gigabyte is worthless if it has too few gigabytes to hold your model at all — capacity is a threshold, not a slope. Use them to break a tie between two cards that both fit.

## A100 PCIe 80 GB against A100 PCIe 40 GB, in short

Is the A100 PCIe 80 GB worth the extra money over the A100 PCIe 40 GB?

It costs $699 more a month — 178% — for 40 GB more memory and 24% more memory bandwidth. It also holds 1 model(s) on a single card that the A100 PCIe 40 GB cannot.

Which one is faster for LLM inference?

Generation speed is bounded by memory bandwidth, because each token requires re-reading the active weights. The A100 PCIe 80 GB has 1,935 GB/s against 1,555 GB/s, so the A100 PCIe 80 GB leads by roughly 24% on a model both of them hold.

Do both come as multi-GPU nodes?

A100 PCIe 80 GB: 1×, 2×, 4×, 8×. A100 PCIe 40 GB: 1×, 2×, 4×, 8×. Both are PCIe cards, joined peer-to-peer over the bus rather than by NVLink.

Can I rent either without an identity check?

Yes, both, on the same terms. No document, no selfie, no phone number and no company registration, at any level of spend. Payment is in cryptocurrency, each invoice gets its own address, and root access arrives under 5 minutes after the first confirmation.

## Other comparisons

- [H100 PCIe vs A100 PCIe  The two 80 GB PCIe cards Compare](https://gpuserver.io/compare/h100-pcie-vs-a100-80gb)
- [A100 PCIe vs L40S  HBM against GDDR, at similar money Compare](https://gpuserver.io/compare/a100-80gb-vs-l40s)
- [RTX 4090 vs A100 PCIe  The cheap fast card against the data-centre one Compare](https://gpuserver.io/compare/rtx-4090-vs-a100-40gb)

## Both are racked and waiting, in all 6 data centres.

Whichever you pick, it is monthly, paid in crypto, opened without an identity check and delivered in under 5 minutes.

[Open the configurator](https://gpuserver.io/configure) [Read the guides](https://gpuserver.io/guides)

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