NVIDIA
Operating mode
Use this to bias workload recommendations toward responsiveness, background autonomy, lighter serving, or multi-GPU scale-out.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
The NVIDIA A800 is the China-export-compliant version of the A100 SXM, with NVLink interconnect bandwidth reduced from 600 GB/s to 400 GB/s to comply with U.S. export regulations that were in effect at launch. Core compute performance — 312 TFLOPS FP16 and 80 GB HBM2e at 1,935 GB/s — is essentially identical to the A100 80GB, making it fully capable for LLM training and inference. It was widely deployed in Chinese AI clusters, powering training runs for several frontier Chinese LLMs, before being subsequently banned under tightened October 2023 export controls.
Beyond LLMs
What AI tasks this GPU can handle — from text generation to image and video creation.
| Capability | Status | Representative Model |
|---|---|---|
| LLM Chat (7B) | Runs natively | Llama 3.1 8B Q4 |
| LLM Coding (30B) | Runs natively | Qwen 3 30B Q4 |
| LLM Large (70B) |
Architecture
Ampere is NVIDIA's second-generation RTX architecture, built on Samsung's 8nm process. It introduced 3rd-generation Tensor Cores with support for sparsity-accelerated INT8 operations and improved FP16 throughput over Turing.
AI Relevance
Sparsity-aware Tensor Cores can effectively double throughput for structured sparse workloads. However, the lack of FP8 support means quantized inference is less efficient than Ada Lovelace or Blackwell.
Chat
SThis model is a direct match for chat. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Coding
SThis model is a direct match for coding. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Agentic Coding
SThis model is still usable for agentic-coding, but it is not the most specialized pick. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Just out of reach
High-quality models that need a bit more memory
Image & Video Generation
51 of 52 models can generate images or video on your NVIDIA A800 80GB
| Model | Max Resolution | Gen Time | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| SD TurboImage | 512×512 | 100ms | S |
| Stable Diffusion 1.5Image | 512×768 | 300ms | S |
| Realistic Vision v5.1Image | 512×768 | 300ms | S |
| DreamShaper 8Image | 512×768 | 300ms | S |
| LCM DreamShaper v7 |
Multi-GPU scaling
Scale out with multiple GPUs for larger models. NVLink provides 400 GB/s inter-GPU bandwidth with 12% overhead.
| Config | Effective memory | Models that fit | Est. bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1× NVIDIA | 80 GB | 350/374 | 1,935 GB/s |
| 2× NVIDIA | 160 GB | 359/374 | 3,406 GB/s |
| 4× NVIDIA | 320 GB | 364/374 | 6,811 GB/s |
| 8× NVIDIA | 640 GB | 373/374 | 13,622 GB/s |
Model counts use default quantization at coding workload settings. Multi-GPU scaling factor: 0.88× per additional GPU.
Upgrade paths
See what you unlock with more powerful hardware
Upgrade options
8× NVIDIA A800 80GBMulti-GPUUnlocks 23 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
Lifts average decode speed across fitting models by about 112%.
NVLink gives this scale-out path a cleaner inter-GPU story than PCIe-only builds.
~$15,000 MSRP
Unlocks 1 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
~$3,999 MSRP
RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition 96GBNVIDIA upgradeUnlocks 1 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
~$9,999 MSRP
Unlocks 13 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
Lifts average decode speed across fitting models by about 50%.
~$20,000 MSRP
Unlocks 14 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
Lifts average decode speed across fitting models by about 68%.
~$8,000 MSRP
NVIDIA A800 80GB (80 GB VRAM) can run these top models: Qwen3-Coder-Next (score: 97/100), Qwen 2.5 VL 72B (score: 94/100), Qwen 3.6 35B A3B (score: 93/100). See the full compatibility list above.
NVIDIA A800 80GB has 80 GB of VRAM available for AI model inference. This determines which models and quantization levels you can run locally.
Yes, NVIDIA A800 80GB is excellent for running LLMs locally with top compatibility scores above 80/100.
For coding on NVIDIA A800 80GB, we recommend Qwen3-Coder-Next. It achieves 101.9 tokens per second with 244K context window. This model is a direct match for coding. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Compare with similar
| Runs natively |
| Llama 3.1 70B Q4 |
| Image Gen (SDXL) | Runs natively | SDXL 1.0 FP16 |
| Image Gen (Flux) | Runs natively | Flux.1 Dev FP16 |
| Image Gen (SD 3.5) | Runs natively | SD 3.5 Large FP16 |
| Video Short (25f) | Runs natively | LTX Video 2B |
| Video Long (100f) | Runs with offload | Wan Video 14B |
Reasoning
SThis model is a direct match for reasoning. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
RAG
SThis model is a direct match for rag. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
| 512×768 |
| 100ms |
| S |
| PixArt-SigmaImage | 1024×1024 | ~1s | S |
| FramePack I2VVideo | 1280×720 | ~1.9s/frame | S |
| SDXL TurboImage | 512×512 | 100ms | S |
| SDXL LightningImage | 1024×1024 | 400ms | S |
| Stable Diffusion XL 1.0Image | 1024×1024 | ~1s | S |
| Playground v2.5Image | 1024×1024 | ~1.5s | S |
| RealVisXL v5.0Image | 1024×1024 | ~1.2s | S |
| DreamShaper XLImage | 1024×1024 | ~1.2s | S |
| Juggernaut XL v9Image | 1024×1024 | ~1.2s | S |
| Animagine XL 3.1Image | 1024×1024 | ~1.2s | S |
| Pony Diffusion V6 XLImage | 1024×1024 | ~1.2s | S |
| Animagine XL 4.0Image | 1024×1024 | ~1.2s | S |
| Illustrious XLImage | 1024×1024 | ~1.2s | S |
| Wan Video 2.1 1.3BVideo | 480×832 | 700ms/frame | S |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 MediumImage | 1024×1024 | ~1.8s | S |
| Flux.2 Klein 4BImage | 1024×1024 | 300ms | S |
| LTX Video 2BVideo | 1280×720 | 900ms/frame | S |
| KolorsImage | 1024×1024 | ~2s | S |
| Stable CascadeImage | 1024×1024 | ~2.6s | S |
| AuraFlow v0.3Image | 1536×1536 | ~4.6s | S |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 LargeImage | 1024×1024 | ~5.6s | S |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large TurboImage | 1024×1024 | ~1s | S |
| CogVideoX 2BVideo | 720×480 | 900ms/frame | S |
| HunyuanVideoVideo | 720×1280 | ~1.9s/frame | S |
| ChromaImage | 1024×1024 | ~1s | S |
| Z-Image TurboImage | 1536×1536 | ~1.1s | S |
| Flux.1 DevImage | 1024×1024 | ~4.6s | S |
| Flux.1 SchnellImage | 1024×1024 | 900ms | S |
| LTX Video 13BVideo | 1280×720 | ~1.9s/frame | S |
| Flux.1 Kontext DevImage | 1024×1024 | ~5.1s | S |
| AnimateDiff v1.5.3Video | 512×768 | 500ms/frame | S |
| Cosmos Diffusion 7BVideo | 1024×576 | ~1.5s/frame | S |
| CogVideoX 5BVideo | 720×480 | ~1.3s/frame | S |
| Wan2.2 TI2V 5BVideo | 832×480 | ~1.3s/frame | S |
| Flux.2 Klein 9BImage | 1024×1024 | 500ms | S |
| Flux.1 Fill DevImage | 1024×1024 | ~4.4s | S |
| Mochi 1 PreviewVideo | 848×480 | ~1.7s/frame | S |
| HunyuanVideo 1.5Video | 720×1280 | ~1.6s/frame | S |
| Helios 14BVideo | 1280×720 | ~1.9s/frame | S |
| SkyReels V2 14BVideo | 1280×720 | ~1.9s/frame | S |
| Wan Video 2.1 14BVideo | 720×1280 | ~1.9s/frame | S |
| Wan Video 2.2 14BVideo | 720×1280 | ~1.9s/frame | S |
| Qwen ImageImage | 1024×1024 | ~1.7s | S |
| Qwen Image EditImage | 1024×1024 | ~1.7s | S |
| Flux.2 DevImage | 1024×1024 | ~48.5s | S |
| MAGI-1Video | 1280×720 | ~2.4s/frame | A |
| HunyuanImage 3.0Image | 256×256 | ~3s | F |
Image models estimated at 1024×1024 (28 steps, FP16). Video models estimated at 768×512 (25 frames, 30 steps, FP16). Actual performance varies with runtime and system load.
There are 5 upgrade path(s) from NVIDIA A800 80GB: NVIDIA A800 80GB, Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB. Upgrading would unlock larger models and faster inference speeds.
Yes, NVIDIA A800 80GB with 80 GB of usable memory can run Flux.1 Dev at FP16 natively. Flux is a 12B parameter diffusion transformer that produces high-quality images. You can also run the Schnell variant for faster generation.
NVIDIA A800 80GB (80 GB VRAM) can handle various AI generation tasks beyond LLMs. For image generation, SDXL and Stable Diffusion 3.5 run well. Flux.1 Dev also runs natively for state-of-the-art image quality. For video, LTX Video 2.3 can generate short clips. Check the AI Capability Matrix above for detailed compatibility.
NVIDIA A800 80GB is excellent for AI image generation. With 80 GB of usable memory, it runs all major diffusion models including Flux.1, SDXL, and Stable Diffusion 3.5 at full precision. You can generate high-resolution images quickly and even handle video generation models.
Yes, NVIDIA A800 80GB with 80 GB of usable memory can run Qwen 3.5 27B at Q8 (near-lossless, ~28.9 GB) or even FP16 (~55.4 GB) depending on your context needs. This setup provides an excellent experience with this model. Use Ollama or vLLM for best results.
With 80 GB VRAM on NVIDIA A800 80GB, use Q8_0 for most models — it is near-lossless and you have the memory for it. For 70B+ models, Q6_K offers excellent quality. Reserve Q4_K_M for 100B+ models or when you need maximum context length.
NVIDIA A800 80GB already has strong memory bandwidth, so the next limit is often memory capacity and context headroom rather than raw decode speed. For local LLMs, fit first and bandwidth second is the right mental model.
NVIDIA A800 80GB supports up to 8× GPU scaling via NVLink at 400 GB/s. With 8× GPUs, you get 640 GB effective memory with a 0.88× scaling factor per GPU. This enables running models like Qwen 3.5 397B A17B and Kimi K2.5 that don't fit on a single card.
NVLink is recommended for NVIDIA A800 80GB multi-GPU inference, providing 400 GB/s interconnect bandwidth with only 12% scaling overhead. PCIe-only setups work but have higher overhead (~25%) due to limited inter-GPU bandwidth.
Buying advice
Excellent choice for local AI
Runs 36 of 50 top models well — a strong all-rounder for local inference.
80.0 GB
VRAM
$15,000
MSRP
$188/GB
Cost per GB VRAM
Best models for this GPU
What will limit you first
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
No major red flags
This recommendation has enough memory headroom and acceptable estimated speed for the selected workload.
Best upgrade itinerary
Unlocks 1 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
Want more headroom? Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB (128.0 GB unified memory) is the next step up.
