H100 vs A100: Which GPU for LLM Training in India? (2026)
If you are building an LLM training cluster in India in 2026, the choice between NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs is one of the most consequential decisions you will make. Both are capable data-centre accelerators, but they sit at very different price points and deliver meaningfully different performance. Here is a practical breakdown to help you decide.
The Spec Sheet Comparison
| Specification | A100 SXM (80 GB) | H100 SXM5 (80 GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Ampere (GA100) | Hopper (GH100) |
| FP16 Tensor TFLOPS | 312 | 1,979 |
| FP8 Tensor TFLOPS | Not supported | 3,958 |
| Memory | 80 GB HBM2e | 80 GB HBM3 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 2.0 TB/s | 3.35 TB/s |
| NVLink Bandwidth | 600 GB/s | 900 GB/s |
| TDP | 400W | 700W |
The raw numbers tell a clear story: the H100 delivers roughly 3x the FP16 tensor throughput and adds FP8 support (via the Transformer Engine) that the A100 lacks entirely.
Real-World Training Performance
Benchmarks on common LLM architectures show the H100 delivering 2.5-3x faster training throughput per GPU compared to the A100 on models like LLaMA-2 70B, GPT-3 175B class models, and Falcon 40B. The advantage comes from three sources:
- Higher tensor core throughput at FP16 and the new FP8 precision
- 67% more memory bandwidth (3.35 TB/s vs 2.0 TB/s), reducing memory-bound bottlenecks
- 50% more NVLink bandwidth (900 GB/s vs 600 GB/s), improving multi-GPU scaling efficiency
For a practical example: training a 13B-parameter model that takes 10 days on 8x A100 SXM would complete in approximately 3.5-4 days on 8x H100 SXM.
Pricing and Availability in India
As of early 2026, the Indian market pricing landscape looks roughly like this:
- A100 80GB SXM: Available, both new-old-stock and refurbished. Prices have dropped significantly as H100 supply has improved. An 8x A100 HGX server costs approximately INR 60-80 lakhs depending on configuration and source.
- H100 80GB SXM: Supply has stabilised after the initial 2023-2024 shortage. An 8x H100 HGX server costs approximately INR 2-3 crore depending on OEM and configuration.
The H100 commands a 3-4x price premium per server over the A100, which closely tracks its performance advantage. The cost-per-TFLOP is therefore roughly comparable between the two.
When to Choose A100
The A100 remains a solid choice in several scenarios:
- Budget-constrained projects where upfront capital is limited but training timelines are flexible
- Inference-heavy deployments where the A100’s 80 GB VRAM is sufficient and peak throughput is less critical
- Mixed workloads combining training, inference, and HPC simulation where the A100’s mature software ecosystem is an advantage
- Short-term projects where the lower upfront cost yields better ROI over a 12-18 month horizon
When to Choose H100
The H100 is the right pick when:
- Training speed is critical: you need to iterate on models quickly and time-to-result directly impacts business outcomes
- You are training at scale: clusters of 32+ GPUs benefit disproportionately from H100’s improved NVLink and Transformer Engine
- FP8 training is viable for your models, effectively doubling throughput over FP16
- Long-term investment: the H100 will remain the high-performance training GPU for the next 2-3 years
The Power and Cooling Factor
Do not overlook infrastructure costs. An 8x H100 server draws 10+ kW versus 5-6 kW for an 8x A100 server. In Indian colocation, electricity costs INR 8-12 per kWh, so the H100 server costs INR 5-8 lakhs more per year in power alone. Ensure your colocation facility supports the power density that H100 servers require. Many older Indian data centres are limited to 6-8 kW per rack.
Our Recommendation
For new LLM training deployments in India in 2026, the H100 is the default choice if your budget allows. The training speed advantage compounds over time. Faster iteration cycles, quicker experiments, and shorter time-to-production. If budget is the primary constraint, A100 systems at their current reduced prices offer excellent value for inference, fine-tuning, and smaller-scale training.
rawcompute.in supplies both A100 and H100 HGX systems from Supermicro, Dell, and ASUS. Contact us for current Indian pricing with GST and import duties included.
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