compare/rtx-5090 vs a100-40gb

RTX 5090vsA100 40GB

▸

If you already own a RTX 5090 → wait. Buying new → A100 40GB.A100 40GB has +8 GB VRAM, -13% more bandwidth, at +$5601 (+233%) price.

▸Side by side

Contender

RTX 5090

NVIDIA · Blackwell · sm_120

Street$2,399

vram: 32 GB
bandwidth: 1792 GB/s
tdp: 575 W
released: 2025-01-30

Contender · winner

A100 40GB

NVIDIA · Ampere · sm_80

Street$8,000

vram: 40 GB
bandwidth: 1555 GB/s
tdp: 400 W
released: 2020-05-14

▸Spec diff

spec	rtx-5090	a100-40gb	delta
vram	32 GB	40 GB	+8 GB · 25%
bandwidth	1792 GB/s	1555 GB/s	-237 · -13%
tdp	575 W	400 W	+-175 W
street price	$2,399	$8,000	+$5601 · 233%
arch maturity	2025-01-30	2020-05-14	newer = less stable

▸What changes with the upgrade

▸ Unlocked by A100 40GB0 models

No additional models unlocked.

▸ Speed deltas on shared modelstop 5

Gemma 2 2b381 → 331 t/s -13%

Mixtral 8x7B v0.172 → 42 t/s -42%

Gemma 3 4B201 → 175 t/s -13%

Qwen3 30B A3B 250774 → 49 t/s -34%

Qwen2.5 Coder 32B70 → 46 t/s -34%

▸Value verdict

▸ Should you buy/upgrade?

A100 40GB adds 8 GB VRAM for +$5601 (233% premium). The real question is whether your workflow needs models that RTX 5090can't run.

$ recommend → If you own a RTX 5090: wait. Prices drop, refresh cycles continue. If buying new: get the A100 40GB IF your budget allows AND you need the extra headroom.