NVIDIA H200 NVL vs NVIDIA L4 Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the NVIDIA H200 NVL compare to the NVIDIA L4 in raw compute performance?

A: The H200 NVL delivers 60.32 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, exactly double the L4's 30.29 TFLOPS. In FP16, the gap widens dramatically: the H200 NVL reaches 120.6 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the L4 is capped at 30.29 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), making the H200 NVL four times faster in half-precision workloads.

Q: Which GPU has more memory bandwidth, and by how much?

A: The H200 NVL offers 4.89 TB/s of bandwidth from 141 GB of HBM3e memory on a 6144-bit bus. The L4 provides 300.1 GB/s from 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus. The H200 NVL's bandwidth is over 16 times higher, a critical advantage for memory-bound AI inference and training tasks.

Q: What do the benchmark scores say about their relative performance?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the H200 NVL scores 334,891, which sits at the 100th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The L4 scores 140,838, placing it at the 95th percentile. The head-to-head delta shows the H200 NVL is 137.8% faster in this single recorded test.

Q: How do their power requirements differ?

A: The H200 NVL has a TDP of 600 W and requires an 8-pin EPS power connector, with a suggested PSU of 1000 W. The L4 is a 72 W card with no power connectors needed, and a suggested PSU of just 250 W. The L4 uses roughly one-eighth the power of the H200 NVL.

Q: What are the physical size differences between the two cards?

A: The H200 NVL is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The L4 is a single-slot card at 169 mm long and 56 mm tall. The L4 is substantially shorter and lower-profile, making it far easier to fit into dense server chassis.

Q: Which GPU supports newer PCIe and graphics APIs?

A: The H200 NVL uses PCIe 5.0 x16 but has no graphics API support (DirectX, OpenGL, Vulkan all listed as N/A). The L4 uses PCIe 4.0 x16 and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, making it the only one of the two with any rendering API compatibility.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split between two very different server workloads. The NVIDIA H200 NVL is the choice for large-scale AI and high-performance computing tasks where memory capacity, bandwidth, and raw FP16 throughput dominate. Its 141 GB of HBM3e, 4.89 TB/s bandwidth, and 120.6 TFLOPS FP16 performance place it at the 100th percentile in the database, with rivals like the AMD Instinct MI300X scoring 5.3% lower and the NVIDIA B300 SXM6 AC scoring 9.4% higher. Anyone deploying for frontier-scale model training or inference should select the H200 NVL despite its 600 W power draw.

The NVIDIA L4 targets a different segment entirely. With a 72 W TDP, single-slot form factor, and no external power connector, it is designed for low-power inference, edge deployments, or multi-GPU density configurations where thermal and space constraints dominate. Its 95th percentile ranking, backed by a Geekbench OpenCL score of 140,838, shows it remains competitive against peers like the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation (which scores 3.1% higher) and the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 (3.2% higher). The L4 also uniquely supports graphics APIs, making it viable for virtual desktop or rendering workloads that the H200 NVL cannot handle at all.

The verdict from the data: choose the H200 NVL when the job demands maximum memory and compute density. Choose the L4 when power efficiency, physical footprint, and API compatibility matter more than raw throughput.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records a single head-to-head benchmark between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. The H200 NVL scores 334,891 against the L4's 140,838, yielding a 137.8% performance advantage for the H200 NVL. This is a dominant margin, roughly 2.4 times the raw score.

Context from the rivals list strengthens this picture. The H200 NVL's score places it just 3.1% behind the NVIDIA B200 (345,482) and 9.4% behind the NVIDIA B300 SXM6 AC (369,831), while beating the AMD Instinct MI300X by 5.3% and the NVIDIA L40S by 13.2%. The L4, by comparison, trades nearly evenly with its nearest competitors: it sits 0.7% behind the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, 3.1% behind both the RTX 4000 Ada Generation and the A10M, and 3.2% behind the Radeon PRO W6800.

In FP16 compute, the head-to-head gap is even larger than the OpenCL score suggests. The H200 NVL's 120.6 TFLOPS (2:1) is exactly four times the L4's 30.29 TFLOPS (1:1). This means for mixed-precision AI workloads, the H200 NVL processes four times as many half-precision operations per second as the L4. The memory bandwidth differential compounds this: 4.89 TB/s versus 300.1 GB/s, a 16.3-fold advantage, which directly impacts how fast large models can be fed through the compute units.

Pixel and texture rates tell a different story. The L4 actually leads in pixel fill rate at 163.2 GPixel/s versus the H200 NVL's 42.84 GPixel/s, a 3.8-fold advantage for the L4. The H200 NVL counters in texture rate with 942.5 GTexel/s versus 489.6 GTexel/s, a 1.9-fold lead. These figures reflect the L4's Ada Lovelace architecture being optimized for graphics-oriented workloads, while the H200 NVL prioritizes compute density.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification category.

Compute units: The H200 NVL packs 16,896 shading units, 528 TMUs, and 528 tensor cores, but only 24 ROPs. The L4 has 7,424 shading units, 240 TMUs, 80 ROPs, and 60 dedicated RT cores. The H200 NVL has 2.3 times the shader count and 2.2 times the TMUs, while the L4 has 3.3 times the ROP count and is the only one with RT cores.

Clock speeds: The H200 NVL runs at a 1365 MHz base and 1785 MHz boost. The L4 has a much lower 795 MHz base but a higher 2040 MHz boost. The memory clock differs slightly: 1593 MHz for the H200 NVL (6.4 Gbps effective) versus 1563 MHz for the L4 (12.5 Gbps effective).

Memory subsystem: The H200 NVL uses 141 GB of HBM3e on a 6144-bit bus with 4.89 TB/s bandwidth. The L4 uses 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 300.1 GB/s bandwidth. The H200 NVL has 5.9 times the capacity, 32 times the bus width, and 16.3 times the bandwidth.

Power and cooling: The H200 NVL draws 600 W TDP in a dual-slot design with an 8-pin EPS connector and 1000 W suggested PSU. The L4 draws 72 W in a single-slot design with no power connector and a 250 W suggested PSU.

Physical dimensions: The H200 NVL measures 267 mm by 111 mm. The L4 measures 169 mm by 56 mm, making it 37% shorter and roughly half the height.

Bus interface: The H200 NVL uses PCIe 5.0 x16; the L4 uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

API support: The H200 NVL lists N/A for DirectX, OpenGL, and Vulkan. The L4 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Release timing: The L4 released in March 2023 as part of Server Ada (Lxx). The H200 NVL released in November 2024 as part of Server Hopper (Hxx).

Architecture Differences

The H200 NVL is built on the Hopper architecture with the GH100 chip, while the L4 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip. Both are fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC, but the similarities end there.

The GH100 die measures 814 mm² and contains 80,000 million transistors, yielding a density of 98.3 million transistors per square millimeter. The AD104 die is 294 mm² with 35,800 million transistors, giving a higher density of 121.8 million per square millimeter. The H200 NVL's die is 2.8 times larger and holds 2.2 times more transistors, but the L4 achieves tighter packing due to its smaller, more focused design.

The H200 NVL uses HBM3e memory, a stacked high-bandwidth design that enables its 4.89 TB/s throughput and 141 GB capacity. The L4 uses conventional GDDR6, which trades bandwidth and capacity for lower cost and power. The H200 NVL has 528 tensor cores (4th generation Hopper tensor cores), while the L4 has 240 tensor cores (Ada generation). Neither card has display outputs.

The H200 NVL belongs to the Server Hopper generation with a predecessor in Server Ada and successor in Server Blackwell. The L4 belongs to the Server Ada generation, with Server Ampere as its predecessor and Server Hopper as its successor. This places the two cards on opposite sides of a generational divide, with the H200 NVL being the newer, higher-end compute part and the L4 being the older, efficiency-focused option.

The L4 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, indicating a graphics-capable architecture with RT cores. The H200 NVL has no graphics API support, reflecting its pure compute orientation. The L4's higher pixel rate (163.2 GPixel/s versus 42.84 GPixel/s) and ROP count (80 versus 24) further confirm its graphics heritage. The H200 NVL's strength lies in texture throughput (942.5 GTexel/s versus 489.6 GTexel/s) and massive FP16 compute, which are the metrics that matter for deep learning and scientific simulation workloads.