GPU Comparison

# NVIDIA A10M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti

The NVIDIA A10M and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti are both built on the GA102 chip using the Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. Despite these shared foundations, they are engineered for entirely different environments: the A10M is a single-slot server accelerator with no display outputs, while the RTX 3090 Ti is a triple-slot consumer flagship with full display connectivity. The benchmark data shows a clear performance gap in favor of the RTX 3090 Ti, which posts a Geekbench OpenCL score of 174,441 compared to the A10M's 135,230, a 22.5% advantage. However, the A10M achieves this with a 150 W TDP versus the RTX 3090 Ti's 450 W, making it the efficiency-oriented choice for dense server deployments where power and space are constrained.

The Verdict

The data presents a straightforward split: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is the outright performance winner, delivering a 22.5% higher Geekbench OpenCL score (174,441 vs 135,230) than the NVIDIA A10M. This advantage is consistent with its substantially higher specifications across every compute metric, 10,752 shading units versus 7,168, 40.00 TFLOPS FP32 versus 23.44 TFLOPS, and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth versus 500.2 GB/s. For users prioritizing raw compute throughput in a workstation or consumer context, the RTX 3090 Ti is the data-backed choice.

However, the A10M wins on operational efficiency. Its 150 W TDP is one-third of the RTX 3090 Ti's 450 W, and its single-slot form factor (267 mm length) contrasts sharply with the RTX 3090 Ti's triple-slot footprint (336 mm length, 61 mm width). The A10M also offers 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, which, while smaller than the RTX 3090 Ti's 24 GB GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, is still substantial for server workloads. The A10M's single 8-pin EPS power connector and 450 W suggested PSU (versus the RTX 3090 Ti's 16-pin connector and 850 W suggested PSU) further reinforce its server-oriented design.

The RTX 3090 Ti also holds a slight edge in the percentile rankings, sitting at the 95th percentile versus the A10M's 96th percentile, a counterintuitive result given the RTX 3090 Ti's higher raw scores, but one that reflects the different GPU populations each card is compared against. In practice, the RTX 3090 Ti's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA A10M itself (deltaPct of -2.4%), while the A10M's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation and AMD Radeon PRO W6800, all within 0.9% of its score.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs share the GA102 die and Ampere architecture, but they diverge significantly in implementation. The A10M is configured with 7,168 shading units, 224 TMUs, 80 ROPs, 56 RT cores, and 224 tensor cores. The RTX 3090 Ti scales these up to 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 84 RT cores, and 336 tensor cores, representing a 50% increase in shading units and RT cores, and a 40% increase in TMUs and tensor cores. This configuration difference explains the RTX 3090 Ti's higher pixel rate (208.3 GPixel/s vs 130.8 GPixel/s) and texture rate (625.0 GTexel/s vs 366.2 GTexel/s).

Clock speeds also favor the RTX 3090 Ti: its base clock of 1560 MHz and boost clock of 1860 MHz compare to the A10M's 975 MHz base and 1635 MHz boost. The memory subsystem tells a similar story. The RTX 3090 Ti uses 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth and 21 Gbps effective speed, while the A10M uses 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus with 500.2 GB/s bandwidth and 12.5 Gbps effective speed. The memory clock differs as well: 1313 MHz for the RTX 3090 Ti versus 1563 MHz for the A10M, though the wider bus and faster effective speed give the RTX 3090 Ti the bandwidth advantage.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and both use PCIe 4.0 x16. The production status is end-of-life for both. The A10M belongs to the Server Ampere generation with a Tesla Turing predecessor and Server Ada successor, while the RTX 3090 Ti belongs to the GeForce 30-series with a GeForce 20 predecessor and GeForce 40 successor. The RTX 3090 Ti's launch MSRP is 1,999 USD.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single head-to-head benchmark available is Geekbench OpenCL, and it decisively favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 Ti scores 174,441 against the A10M's 135,230, a deltaPct of -22.5% from the A10M's perspective. This means the A10M trails by nearly a quarter of its own score, a substantial margin that cannot be attributed to minor configuration differences.

Breaking down what drives this gap, the RTX 3090 Ti's FP32 compute of 40.00 TFLOPS is 70.6% higher than the A10M's 23.44 TFLOPS. Its memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is more than double the A10M's 500.2 GB/s. The RTX 3090 Ti also has 50% more shading units and 40% more ROPs, which directly impacts pixel throughput (208.3 GPixel/s vs 130.8 GPixel/s). These architectural advantages compound in OpenCL workloads, which exercise both compute and memory subsystems heavily.

The A10M's nearest rival comparisons place it in a tight cluster: the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation scores 135,218 (deltaPct 0), the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 scores 135,396 (-0.1%), the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo scores 135,774 (-0.4%), and the AMD Radeon PRO V620 scores 136,472 (-0.9%). This indicates the A10M is well-positioned among its server-class peers, sitting within 1% of all of them. The RTX 3090 Ti's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA L4 at 131,072 (deltaPct 0.7%), the RTX 4000 Ada Generation at 135,218 (-2.4%), and the A10M at 135,230 (-2.4%). The RTX 3090 Ti's average benchmark score across all tests is 131,938, which is lower than its Geekbench OpenCL score alone because it also includes 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (5,741) and Geekbench Vulkan (215,633) results.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. Its FP32 throughput is 40.00 TFLOPS versus the A10M's 23.44 TFLOPS, and it leads by 22.5% in Geekbench OpenCL (174,441 vs 135,230).

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The RTX 3090 Ti has 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, while the A10M has 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus with 500.2 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The A10M has a 150 W TDP with a suggested 450 W PSU and a single 8-pin EPS connector. The RTX 3090 Ti has a 450 W TDP with a suggested 850 W PSU and a 16-pin connector.

Q: Which card is better suited for a server chassis?

A: The A10M is the data-backed choice. It is single-slot, measures 267 mm in length and 112 mm in height, has no display outputs, and draws 150 W, all of which are server-friendly attributes compared to the RTX 3090 Ti's triple-slot design at 336 mm length, 140 mm height, and 61 mm width.

Q: Are there physical size differences that matter?

A: Yes. The RTX 3090 Ti is 69 mm longer (336 mm vs 267 mm), 28 mm taller (140 mm vs 112 mm), and 61 mm wide, whereas the A10M has no listed width. The RTX 3090 Ti also requires three slot spaces versus the A10M's single slot.

Q: How does the A10M compare to its server-class rivals?

A: The A10M's Geekbench OpenCL score of 135,230 is within 0.9% of the AMD Radeon PRO V620 (136,472), the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo (135,774), the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 (135,396), and the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation (135,218).

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti wins decisively in raw performance. It dominates the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark with a 22.5% lead, and its specification sheet reinforces this across every compute category: 50% more shading units, 40% more TMUs and ROPs, 50% more RT cores, 50% more tensor cores, and more than double the memory bandwidth. For workloads that are compute-bound or memory-bandwidth-bound, such as large-scale rendering, scientific simulation, or machine learning inference with large batch sizes, the RTX 3090 Ti is the clear choice. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory also provides 4 GB more capacity than the A10M, which matters for datasets that approach the 20 GB limit. The RTX 3090 Ti's display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a) also make it the only option of the two for direct visual output, whereas the A10M has no outputs at all.

The NVIDIA A10M wins in deployment flexibility and efficiency. Its 150 W TDP is exactly one-third of the RTX 3090 Ti's 450 W, and its suggested PSU of 450 W is 400 W lower than the RTX 3090 Ti's 850 W requirement. In a dense server environment where power budgets are allocated per slot, the A10M allows three cards to be deployed for roughly the same power draw as one RTX 3090 Ti. Its single-slot design at 267 mm length also fits in chassis that cannot accommodate the RTX 3090 Ti's triple-slot, 336 mm footprint. The A10M's 8-pin EPS power connector is a standard server power input, whereas the RTX 3090 Ti requires a 16-pin connector that may necessitate adapter cables in server contexts. The A10M's 20 GB of memory, while smaller than the RTX 3090 Ti's 24 GB, still provides ample capacity for most inference workloads, and its 500.2 GB/s bandwidth is respectable for a 150 W card. For organizations deploying GPU accelerators at scale in rack-mounted systems, the A10M's combination of single-slot cooling, low power draw, and server-standard power delivery makes it the practical choice, even with the 22.5% performance deficit in the benchmark data.