Nvidia’s H100 GPU has been a popular product, but concerns about pricing and lengthy order delays have left some customers seeking more cost-effective alternatives. Luckily, the L40S series is a powerful sibling GPU to the H100, offering more memory at a lower price point.
Similar to the H100 and A100 counterparts, the L40S GPU is designed to power next-generation data center workloads in the age of AI, handling generative AI, LLM inferencing, and 3D graphics workloads. Serve The Home praised the L40S as a “fascinating” and cheaper alternative, noting its focus on AI capabilities.
While the L40S has less memory capacity than the A100, it makes up for it with impressive performance, supporting both the Nvidia Transformer Engine and FP8. Nvidia’s metrics show tensor performance of up to 1,466 teraflops alongside RT core performance of 212 teraflops.
Cost is a key selling point for the L40S, with the H100 being around 2.6 times the price of the L40S. Availability is also a significant advantage, as the H100 has been difficult to obtain due to high demand.
Overall, the L40S provides a cost-effective alternative to the H100, offering powerful AI capabilities at a lower price point and with better availability.
