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A100 vs RTX 5090Specs, memory and LLM performance
The A100 has 80 GB of HBM2e and NVLink. The RTX 5090 has 32 GB with slightly less bandwidth (1,792 GB/s vs 2,039 GB/s), but supports FP8 and FP4, which the A100 does not.
Memory
80 GB vs 32 GB
Bandwidth
2.04 TB/s vs 1.79 TB/s
Power
400 W vs 575 W
Type
Data center GPU vs Consumer GPU
Which should you choose?
CHOOSE A100 IF
You need more than 32 GB on one card, NVLink, or data center reliability.
CHOOSE RTX 5090 IF
Your models fit in 32 GB and you want newer low-precision formats for a much lower price.
Still deciding between A100 and RTX 5090?
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A100 vs RTX 5090 specs
Manufacturer specifications. Green marks the stronger figure where a higher number is better. Dense compute is shown without sparsity.
| Specification | NVIDIA A100 80GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Data center GPU | Consumer GPU |
| Memory | 80 GB | 32 GB |
| Memory type | HBM2e | GDDR7 |
| Memory bandwidth | 2.04 TB/s | 1.79 TB/s |
| FP16 / BF16 (dense) | 312 TFLOPS | Not published |
| FP8 (dense) | Not supported | Not published |
| FP4 (dense) | Not supported | 1,676 TFLOPS |
| Power | 400 W | 575 W |
| Multi-GPU link | NVLink 3: 600 GB/s | PCIe Gen5 x16 (no NVLink) |
| Form factor | SXM4 module in 4- or 8-GPU servers (PCIe version: 300 W) | Desktop graphics card |
| Architecture | Ampere, 2020 | Blackwell, 2025 |
| Software | CUDA, TensorRT-LLM, vLLM, SGLang | CUDA, vLLM, llama.cpp, Ollama |
| Price | No list price: sold in servers through OEMs and cloud providers | US$1,999 launch price (Founders Edition) |
What they mean for running LLMs
For large language models, memory decides which models fit and how many users you can serve, and memory bandwidth decides how fast each user gets tokens. These are planning figures for one GPU or system using a 4-bit model.
| For LLMs | A100 | RTX 5090 |
|---|---|---|
| Usable for models | About 72 GB | About 29 GB |
| Largest dense model at 4-bit (1 user, short context) | About 110B parameters | About 41B parameters |
| Llama 3.3 70B at 4-bit, single-user speed ceiling | About 53 tokens/s | Does not fit on one GPU |
Which open-weight models fit
Memory needed for one user with 8K context at the lowest precision available for each model. Open a model for team-size and fine-tuning figures.
| Model (1 user, 8K context, lowest available precision) | A100 | RTX 5090 |
|---|---|---|
| gpt-oss-20b 21B · about 15 GB at MXFP4 | Yes | Yes |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B 25.2B · about 16 GB at 4-bit | Yes | Yes |
| Qwen3.6-27B 27.78B · about 20 GB at 4-bit | Yes | Yes |
| Qwen3.8-27B 27.8B · about 24 GB at NVFP4 | Yes | Yes |
| Gemma 4 31B 30.7B · about 20 GB at 4-bit | Yes | Yes |
| Qwen3.6-35B-A3B 35B · about 24 GB at NVFP4 | Yes | Yes |
| Llama 3.3 70B Instruct 70.6B · about 46 GB at INT4 | Yes | 2 GPUs |
| gpt-oss-120b 117B · about 70 GB at MXFP4 | Yes | 4 GPUs |
| MiniMax-M2.5 229B · about 135 GB at 4-bit | 2 GPUs | 8 GPUs |
| GLM-5.3-Flash 320B · about 192 GB at NVFP4 | 4 GPUs | 8 GPUs |
| DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash 552B · about 320 GB at 4-bit | 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| DeepSeek-R1 671B · about 410 GB at 4-bit | 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| DeepSeek-V3.2 685B · about 419 GB at NVFP4 | 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| GLM-5.2 744B · about 455 GB at NVFP4 | 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| GLM-5.3 753B · about 460 GB at NVFP4 | 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| GLM-5.1 754B · about 461 GB at NVFP4 | 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| Kimi K2 1T · about 579 GB at 4-bit | No: more than 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro 1.6T · about 976 GB at FP4 + FP8 | No: more than 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
| Kimi K3 2.8T · about 1.62 TB at MXFP4 | No: more than 8 GPUs | No: more than 8 GPUs |
Models in amber need several of these GPUs working as one. Buying the GPUs is the easy part. Vanik Edge OS splits the model across them, keeps it running if a server fails and manages it all from one console. See how Edge OS clusters GPU servers
FROM SIZING TO RUNNING
Sizing the hardware is the easy part.
Getting several GPUs to work as one system for a whole company is where most projects slow down. That is the part Vanik Edge OS does for you.
STEP 01 · THIS TOOL
Size it
Work out the GPU memory your models need and which GPUs or servers can hold them.
STEP 02 · VANIK EDGE OS
Cluster it
Edge OS joins your GPU servers into one cluster, splits a large model across them and keeps it running if a server fails. NVIDIA and AMD servers work side by side.
STEP 03 · VANIK EDGE OS
Run it
Your team gets AI apps with single sign-on and an audit trail, managed from one console, with your data staying inside your building.
A100 vs RTX 5090 questions
What is the difference between the A100 and the RTX 5090?
The A100 has 80 GB of HBM2e and NVLink. The RTX 5090 has 32 GB with slightly less bandwidth (1,792 GB/s vs 2,039 GB/s), but supports FP8 and FP4, which the A100 does not.
A100 vs RTX 5090: which is better for LLM inference?
For generating tokens, the A100 is faster: it has 2.04 TB/s of memory bandwidth versus 1.79 TB/s, and LLM token generation is mostly limited by bandwidth. The A100 holds larger models and more users’ context with 80 GB of memory versus 32 GB. Choose the A100 if you need more than 32 GB on one card, NVLink, or data center reliability. Choose the RTX 5090 if your models fit in 32 GB and you want newer low-precision formats for a much lower price.
Can the A100 and RTX 5090 run Llama 3.3 70B?
Llama 3.3 70B needs about 46 GB of memory at 4-bit for one user with 8K context. The A100 runs it on one GPU at about 53 tokens/s at most for one user, and the RTX 5090 needs 2 GPUs. Speeds are theoretical ceilings from memory bandwidth; real speeds are usually 50 to 80% of that.
How much does the A100 cost compared with the RTX 5090?
A100: No list price: sold in servers through OEMs and cloud providers. RTX 5090: US$1,999 launch price (Founders Edition). Data center GPUs are usually bought as part of 4- or 8-GPU servers, so compare full-system quotes.
How are these numbers calculated?
Memory, bandwidth, compute and power are manufacturer specifications. Model memory needs come from our VRAM calculator: weights plus KV cache plus about 5 to 10% runtime overhead, keeping 10% of each GPU free (15% on GB10 systems, 25% on Mac). The speed ceiling is memory bandwidth divided by the model’s weight size. All figures are planning estimates.
Related comparisons
Specifications from the manufacturer pages for the NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. Speed ceilings are bandwidth divided by model size, before batching; real throughput depends on the inference engine and settings. Last checked November 10, 2026.
Not sure which hardware fits your team?
Vanik Edge OS runs open-weight models on NVIDIA DGX, AMD Instinct and other GPU servers on your premises, and helps you size the hardware first.