H100 PCIe or A100 PCIe?
Both are dedicated, both are monthly, both open without an identity check. What separates them is memory, bandwidth and $378 a month — and which of those matters depends entirely on what you intend to run.
- $1,469/moH100 PCIe, one card
- $1,091/moA100 PCIe, one card
- 80 vs 80 GBmemory per card
- 1.0×bandwidth gap
The short answer
Which one, and when
- Pick the H100 PCIe
- when you want the newer generation for the same capability — expect little difference in practice.
- Pick the A100 PCIe
- when the H100 PCIe offers you nothing you need. Same memory, comparable bandwidth, $378/month cheaper.
- Neither, if
- your model does not fit on a single card of either. Sharding costs synchronisation at every layer — see the interconnect guide before buying a multi-GPU node.
Side by side
| H100 PCIe | A100 PCIe | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Hopper | Ampere | Hopper is a different generation |
| Memory per card | 80 GB HBM3 | 80 GB HBM2e | Identical |
| Memory bandwidth | 2,000 GB/s | 1,935 GB/s | 1.03× in favour of the H100 PCIe |
| 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 | $1,469 | $1,091 | $378/month apart |
Price at every node size
| Node | H100 PCIe | A100 PCIe | Total VRAM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 × GPU | $1,469/mo | $1,091/mo | 80 GB / 80 GB | H100 PCIe A100 PCIe |
| 2 × GPU | $2,892/mo | $2,159/mo | 160 GB / 160 GB | H100 PCIe A100 PCIe |
| 4 × GPU | $5,564/mo | $4,157/mo | 320 GB / 320 GB | H100 PCIe A100 PCIe |
| 8 × GPU | $10,568/mo | $7,906/mo | 640 GB / 640 GB | H100 PCIe A100 PCIe |
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 H100 PCIe
Nothing. Every model the H100 PCIe holds on one card, the A100 PCIe holds too — the difference between them is speed, not capability.
Only the A100 PCIe
Nothing. The H100 PCIe holds everything the A100 PCIe does.
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.
| Card | $/GB of VRAM, per month | $/TB per second, per month | Better at |
|---|---|---|---|
| H100 PCIe | $18.36 | $735 | Neither |
| A100 PCIe | $13.64 | $564 | 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.
H100 PCIe against A100 PCIe, in short
Is the H100 PCIe worth the extra money over the A100 PCIe?
Which one is faster for LLM inference?
Do both come as multi-GPU nodes?
Can I rent either without an identity check?
Other comparisons
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.