The A40 has 6x the memory and 3.1x the bandwidth. The RTX 3050 is newer and cheaper right now.
At a glance
Memory
6x more on A40
- A40
- 48 GB
- RTX 3050
- 8 GB
Memory bandwidth
3.1x higher on A40
- A40
- 696 GB/s
- RTX 3050
- 224 GB/s
Cheapest on-demand
83% cheaper on RTX 3050
- A40
- $0.40 /GPU/hr
- RTX 3050
- $0.07 /GPU/hr
Price comparison
Median price per GPU per hour by billing type, with the cheapest listing under it.
| Billing | A40 | RTX 3050 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-demand | $0.65 /GPU/hr from $0.40 | -- /GPU/hr from $0.07 | |
| Reserved | -- /GPU/hr from $0.61 (24 mo) | No reserved listings | |
| Spot | -- /GPU/hr from $0.27 | -- /GPU/hr from $0.03 |
Heads up: A provider's own page may quote a different figure, for example on tax, region or a promotion. A monthly-only plan shows a derived hourly rate. Medians are across providers, one vote each, so a large catalog does not outweigh a small one. No median for reserved and spot on the A40 and on-demand and spot on the RTX 3050: we only show one when at least 3 providers list the GPU on that billing type. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
Price history
A40 vs RTX 3050 price history
Weekly median on-demand price per GPU per hour
Specs comparison
| Spec | A40 | RTX 3050 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memory | |||
| Capacity | 48 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 6x more on A40 |
| Bandwidth | 696 GB/s | 224 GB/s | 3.1x higher on A40 |
| Bus width | 384-bit | 128-bit | 3x wider on A40 |
| Compute · dense | |||
| FP16 / BF16 | 149.7 TFLOPS | 18.2 TFLOPS | 8.2x higher on A40 |
| INT8 | 299.3 TOPS | 72.8 TOPS | 4.1x higher on A40 |
| FP32 | 37.4 TFLOPS | 9.1 TFLOPS | 4.1x higher on A40 |
| Platform | |||
| Interconnect | PCIe only | PCIe only | |
| Board power | 300 W | 130 W | 2.3x higher on A40 |
| Released | Q4 2020 | Q1 2022 | 16 months newer on RTX 3050 |
| Precision | |||
| Supported formats | FP16BF16TF32FP32INT4INT8 | FP16BF16TF32FP32INT4INT8 | |
Compute: Vendor peak figures, dense and per GPU. Not measured throughput.
Source: A40 datasheet and RTX 3050 datasheet.
Where to rent them
Providers that rent these GPUs, with each one's cheapest rate. No provider we track offers both right now.
| Provider | A40 | RTX 3050 |
|---|---|---|
Vast.ai
USA
|
$0.40 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- |
GPU.ai
UAE
|
$0.40 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- |
Runpod
USA
|
$0.49 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- |
Sesterce
France
|
$2.05 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- |
Runcrate
USA
|
$2.42 /GPU/hr On-demand PCIe | -- |
Denvr
Canada
|
$0.65 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- |
Exoscale
Switzerland
|
$1.05 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- |
Database Mart
USA
|
$0.61 /GPU/hr Reserved | -- |
Salad
Distributed
|
-- | $0.07 /GPU/hr On-demand |
9 providers list the A40 and 1 the RTX 3050. Every listing is on the A40 page and the RTX 3050 page.
Similar GPUs
Other comparisons in the same class.
-
Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada
48 GB GDDR6 · 38% more bandwidth than the A40
From $0.49 /GPU/hr Compare -
Nvidia L40
48 GB GDDR6 · 24% more bandwidth than the A40
From $0.45 /GPU/hr Compare
-
Nvidia A5000
24 GB GDDR6 · NVLink 112 GB/s
From $0.23 /GPU/hr Compare
-
Nvidia RTX 3060
12 GB GDDR6 · 61% more bandwidth than the RTX 3050
From $0.05 /GPU/hr Compare
-
Nvidia RTX 4060
8 GB GDDR6 · 21% more bandwidth than the RTX 3050
From $0.08 /GPU/hr Compare
Our data for Nvidia A40 was last updated on Sept. 14, 2026, and for Nvidia RTX 3050 on Sept. 14, 2026.