COMPARE / A100 80GB PCIE VS A100 80GB SXM
A100 80GB PCIe vs A100 80GB SXM
Specs from the chip makers' datasheets; prices from the live Compute Cafe panel, refreshed hourly. Every rate is an on-demand published price with a source receipt.
CHEAPEST A100 80GB PCIE
$0.190/hr
SpotGPUs · median $4.78 · 6 providers
CHEAPEST A100 80GB SXM
$0.290/hr
SpotGPUs · median $5.12 · 7 providers
CHEAPER RIGHT NOW
A100 80GB PCIe
live panel, 2026-09-27
| A100 80GB PCIE | A100 80GB SXM | |
|---|---|---|
| MAKER | NVIDIA | NVIDIA |
| ARCHITECTURE | Ampere | Ampere |
| LAUNCHED | 2021 | 2020 |
| MEMORY | 80 GB HBM2e | 80 GB HBM2e |
| MEMORY BANDWIDTH | 1.9 TB/s | 2.0 TB/s |
| TENSOR COMPUTE | 312 TFLOPS FP16/BF16 tensor dense (624 sparse) | 312 TFLOPS FP16/BF16 tensor dense (624 sparse) |
| POWER DRAW | 250 W (up to 300 W) | 400 W |
| INTERCONNECT | PCIe 4.0 x16 (NVLink bridge 600 GB/s on pairs) | NVLink 3.0 600 GB/s |
HOW TO CHOOSE
A100 80GB PCIe vs A100 80GB SXM
Same chip, same 80 GB, slightly lower power cap and bandwidth (1.9 vs 2.0 TB/s). The real difference is NVLink: SXM nodes link eight GPUs at 600 GB/s each; PCIe tops out at bridge-linked pairs. Multi-GPU training belongs on SXM.
Workload fit
A100 80GB PCIe: single-card fine-tuning, inference at scale, oem server upgrades. A100 80GB SXM: fine-tuning up to 70b, multi-gpu training, large-model inference.
A100 80GB PCIE VS A100 80GB SXM - FAQ
Which is cheaper to rent, A100 80GB PCIe or A100 80GB SXM?
By today's published on-demand rates: A100 80GB PCIe starts at $0.190/GPU/hr (median $4.78, 6 providers) and A100 80GB SXM starts at $0.290/GPU/hr (median $5.12, 7 providers). The cheapest live listing is the A100 80GB PCIe at SpotGPUs. Figures recompute from the panel on every refresh.
A100 80GB PCIe or A100 80GB SXM - which should I rent?
A100 80GB PCIe: The PCIe form of the A100 80GB trades the SXM module's NVLink fabric for drop-in compatibility with standard servers. A100 80GB SXM: The A100 80GB was the standard large-model training chip of 2021-2023 and still anchors an enormous installed base. The side-by-side spec table and live price rows above give the full picture.
Where can I rent A100 80GB PCIe and A100 80GB SXM?
6 providers publish A100 80GB PCIe rates and 7 publish A100 80GB SXM rates on Compute Cafe. Every row links to the provider's own published price - committed-use and reserved rates are excluded.
Full pricing: A100 80GB PCIe · A100 80GB SXM · all comparisons