NVIDIA confirms Ampere A100 PCIe accelerator variant with 80GB of HBM2e memory capacity.

NVIDIA is preparing an even higher-end Ampere GPU accelerator with the introduction of the Ampere A100 PCIe accelerator featuring 80GB of HBM2e memory. The GA100 GPU inside the accelerator contains an incredible 54 billion transistors on an 826mm die, delivering a massive 2TB/sec of memory bandwidth on the new variant.

Originally, NVIDIA offered the A100 with 40GB of HBM2e memory. The newly-upgraded A100 now provides double the framebuffer with 80GB of HBM2e memory deployed. While NVIDIA already has an 80GB model of the A100 with an SXM connector, this new offering represents the PCIe model now equipped with 80GB of HBM2e memory.

The new model is already appearing in NVIDIA's own Data Center documentation, where the company lists GA100 configurations in both 40GB and 80GB HBM2e models across both the SXM and PCIe variants of the A100 accelerator. According to NVIDIA's documentation, the PCIe variant with 80GB of HBM2e memory is poised to deliver performance corresponding to the 2TB/sec memory bandwidth specification.

With NVIDIA selling the A100 40GB variant for around $15,000, the company should expect the new A100 80GB variant to command a price of over $20,000.