compare/rtx-6000-ada vs l40s

RTX 6000 AdavsL40S

▸

If you already own a RTX 6000 Ada → wait. Buying new → L40S.L40S has +0 GB VRAM, -10% more bandwidth, at +$1500 (+21%) price.

▸Side by side

Contender

RTX 6000 Ada

NVIDIA · Ada Lovelace · sm_89

Street$7,000

vram: 48 GB
bandwidth: 960 GB/s
tdp: 300 W
released: 2022-12-13

Contender · winner

L40S

NVIDIA · Ada Lovelace · sm_89

Street$8,500

vram: 48 GB
bandwidth: 864 GB/s
tdp: 350 W
released: 2023-08-08

▸Spec diff

spec	rtx-6000-ada	l40s	delta
vram	48 GB	48 GB	+0 GB · 0%
bandwidth	960 GB/s	864 GB/s	-96 · -10%
tdp	300 W	350 W	+50 W
street price	$7,000	$8,500	+$1500 · 21%
arch maturity	2022-12-13	2023-08-08	newer = less stable

▸What changes with the upgrade

▸ Unlocked by L40S0 models

No additional models unlocked.

▸ Speed deltas on shared modelstop 5

Gemma 2 2b204 → 184 t/s -10%

Gemma 3 4B108 → 97 t/s -10%

Meta Llama 3.1 8B55 → 50 t/s -9%

Gemma 2 9B49 → 45 t/s -8%

gemma 3 27b33 → 30 t/s -9%

▸Value verdict

▸ Should you buy/upgrade?

L40S adds 0 GB VRAM for +$1500 (21% premium). The real question is whether your workflow needs models that RTX 6000 Adacan't run.

$ recommend → If you own a RTX 6000 Ada: wait. Prices drop, refresh cycles continue. If buying new: get the L40S IF your budget allows AND you need the extra headroom.