RTX A5000 vs RTX A6000: Specs, VRAM & Price
Short answer: choose the RTX A6000 when 48 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX A5000 when 24 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
The RTX A5000 has 24 GB of VRAM; the RTX A6000 has 48 GB.
You can rent both by the hour, no purchase required. RTX A5000 from $0.176/GPU/hr across 2 providers; RTX A6000 from $0.363/GPU/hr across 4 providers. The RTX A5000 is 52% cheaper at the entry rate.
RTX A5000
Good for inference and small-scale training workloads
RTX A6000
Good for training and inference on models that don't need FP8 kernels
Last updated: 2026-10-07 21:59:27 UTCRefreshes hourly
Specs side by side
| Spec | RTX A5000 | RTX A6000 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24 GB | 48 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 768 GB/s | 768 GB/s |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere |
| Compute capability | 8.6 | 8.6 |
| Precisions in hardware | FP32, FP16, BF16, INT4 | FP32, FP16, BF16, INT4 |
| NVLink / multi-GPU interconnect | NVLink, 112.5 GB/s bidirectional | NVLink, 2-way |
| Max board power (TDP) | 230W | 300W |
| Providers | 2 | 4 |
| Regions | 2 | 4 |
On-demand price
| Rate | RTX A5000 | RTX A6000 |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest per GPU/hr | $0.297/GPU/hr | $0.550/GPU/hr |
Which is better for AI: RTX A5000 or RTX A6000?
Choose the RTX A6000 when 48 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX A5000 when 24 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
RTX A5000 vs RTX A6000: common questions
Is the RTX A5000 or the RTX A6000 better for AI?
Short answer: choose the RTX A6000 when 48 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX A5000 when 24 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
Is the RTX A5000 or the RTX A6000 cheaper to rent?
On Aquanode's live marketplace the RTX A5000 starts at $0.176/GPU/hr (median $0.297/GPU/hr across 2 providers) and the RTX A6000 starts at $0.363/GPU/hr (median $0.583/GPU/hr across 4 providers). The RTX A5000 is the cheaper of the two at the entry rate, by 52%.
What is the difference between the RTX A5000 and the RTX A6000?
The RTX A5000 has 24 GB of VRAM against the RTX A6000's 48 GB; both are Ampere parts; both run BF16, INT4 workloads in hardware. On price, the RTX A5000 lists from $0.176/GPU/hr and the RTX A6000 from $0.363/GPU/hr.
How widely available are the RTX A5000 and the RTX A6000?
2 providers list the RTX A5000 and 4 list the RTX A6000, across 2 and 4 regions respectively. 2 providers currently list both models.
How much does 1,000 GPU-hours cost on the RTX A5000 vs the RTX A6000?
At the lowest rates listed today, 1,000 GPU-hours costs $176 on the RTX A5000 and $363 on the RTX A6000, a difference of $187 for the same runtime. Rates are per GPU per hour and update hourly.
How much VRAM does the RTX A5000 have compared to the RTX A6000?
The RTX A5000 has 24 GB of VRAM; the RTX A6000 has 48 GB.
Does the RTX A5000 or the RTX A6000 support NVLink?
Yes, both support a multi-GPU interconnect: the RTX A5000 has NVLink, 112.5 GB/s bidirectional and the RTX A6000 has NVLink, 2-way.
How this comparison is calculated
Every price is normalized to a per-GPU hourly rate using the same pipeline as every other pricing surface on Aquanode, and only the cheapest qualifying offer per provider is shown. A dash means that provider does not currently list that GPU.
Architecture, compute capability and supported precisions come from each vendor's published datasheet for that generation, not from the marketplace feed. This page regenerates at most once per hour.
Memory bandwidth, tensor TFLOPS, NVLink/interconnect and max board power are the same verified-from-datasheet figures shown on each model's own RTX A5000 page and RTX A6000 page, which link the primary vendor source for that model. A dash here means Aquanode hasn't verified that figure from a primary source yet, never a guess.
Go further
Check what fits in each card's memory with the RTX A5000 VRAM calculator and the RTX A6000 VRAM calculator, or browse every model by generation in the GPU index.
More RTX A5000 comparisons
More RTX A6000 comparisons
Related reading: RTX A5000 pricing and specs, The NVIDIA Inception program, explained, Google Colab alternatives for dedicated GPU access, Free GPU credits for students and researchers, and RunPod volume disk vs. network volume, compared.
