ComparisonMarch 17, 2026•11 min read
L40S vs A100: Which GPU Cloud Gives Best Value in 2026?
The NVIDIA L40S is one of 2026's most interesting GPU options — 48GB of GDDR6, FP8 support, and pricing between A100 40GB and 80GB. But does it beat the proven A100?
Specifications Comparison
| Feature | L40S | A100 40GB | A100 80GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memory | 48GB GDDR6 | 40GB HBM2e | 80GB HBM2e |
| Memory BW | 864 GB/s | 1,555 GB/s | 2,000 GB/s |
| FP16 | 362 TFLOPS | 312 TFLOPS | 312 TFLOPS |
| FP8 | 733 TFLOPS | N/A | N/A |
| Cloud Price | $1.50–$2.00/hr | $1.20–$1.89/hr | $1.89–$2.50/hr |
Real-World Benchmarks
- Fine-tuning Llama 3 7B (LoRA): A100 40GB: 2.1 samples/sec vs L40S: 2.4 samples/sec (+14%)
- Inference Llama 3 7B (FP8 on L40S vs FP16 on A100): L40S 2,100 tok/s vs A100 1,200 tok/s (+75%)
- Inference Llama 3 70B (4-bit): A100 40GB: 420 tok/s vs L40S: 480 tok/s (+14%)
Which to Choose?
- Choose L40S: Serving inference with FP8 (vLLM/TensorRT-LLM), 7B–30B models in production, single-GPU workloads
- Choose A100 40GB: Training under 20B params, multi-GPU training (better NVLink), memory-bandwidth-sensitive tasks
- Choose A100 80GB: 30B–70B models, need memory capacity + bandwidth flexibility
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