NVIDIA H100
The NVIDIA H100 is the most powerful GPU for AI training and inference, featuring 80GB HBM3 memory, 3TB/s memory bandwidth, and 4th-generation Tensor Cores. 3-6× faster than A100 for LLM training, enabling GPT-4-scale models. Key innovations: Transformer Engine (FP8 precision), multi-instance GPU (MIG) for efficient sharing, and NVLink connectivity for scaling to thousands of GPUs. Available in SXM5 (700W, highest performance) and PCIe (350W, easier deployment). Used by OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google for training frontier models. Cloud rental: $2-4/hr on Lambda Labs, AWS, GCP.
Overview
H100 sets the standard for AI training performance. Train 70B parameter models 3× faster than A100, fine-tune Llama 3 70B in hours not days, generate images with Stable Diffusion 3 at 2× speed. Transformer Engine uses FP8 (8-bit floating point) to double throughput on transformer models with minimal accuracy loss. 80GB HBM3 memory handles largest models without gradient checkpointing. Use cases: LLM pre-training (GPT, Claude, Llama), diffusion model training (FLUX, Stable Diffusion), scientific computing (protein folding, climate modeling).
Key Specifications
- **Memory**: 80GB HBM3, 3TB/s bandwidth (2× A100)
- **Compute**: 1,979 TFLOPS FP8 Tensor, 989 TFLOPS FP16
- **Transformer Engine**: FP8 precision for 2× transformer throughput
- **NVLink**: 900 GB/s for multi-GPU scaling
- **Power**: 700W (SXM5), 350W (PCIe)
- **Release**: 2022, widely available 2023-2024
Business Value
H100 reduces AI training time and cost. Fine-tune 7B model: 2 hours on H100 vs 6 hours on A100 ($4 vs $8). Train custom 13B model: 1 week on 8× H100 vs 3 weeks on 8× A100. Faster iteration means better models, quicker time-to-market. Cloud rental economics: H100 costs 2× A100 per hour but delivers 3-6× performance, making it 1.5-3× more cost-effective per training run. For startups and enterprises training custom models, H100 is the performance-to-cost leader.
Where to Access
- **Lambda Labs**: $1.99/hr H100 PCIe, instant provisioning
- **AWS EC2 P5**: $32/hr (8× H100 SXM5), enterprise-grade infrastructure
- **Google Cloud A3**: $30/hr (8× H100), tight GCP integration
- **Microsoft Azure**: ND H100 v5, available in select regions
- **CoreWeave**: Competitive pricing, high availability
- **Purchase**: $25K-$40K per unit, 6-12 month lead times