GPU Use Cases
A40 use cases
The A40 is an Ampere data-center GPU with 48 GB of GDDR6 memory and professional graphics support. Its large VRAM capacity and data-center reliability make it a practical choice for visualization, mid-size inference, and virtual workstation workloads.
Mid-size LLM inference
The A40's 48 GB GDDR6 fits models up to approximately 24B parameters at FP16 or 48B at INT8. Its 74.8 TFLOPS of FP16 throughput is lower than newer Ada Lovelace GPUs, but its large VRAM capacity and data-center reliability make it a practical choice for inference serving of mid-size models. It lacks NVLink, so VRAM cannot be pooled across cards.
Visualization and virtual workstations
The A40 supports professional graphics workloads including CAD, 3D rendering, and virtual workstation deployments. Its 300W TDP and PCIe 4.0 interface make it compatible with standard server infrastructure. It is a common choice for VDI deployments where both AI inference and graphics rendering are needed.
Fine-tuning
The A40's 48 GB capacity provides headroom for LoRA and QLoRA fine-tuning of models up to 30B parameters. Its Ampere architecture lacks FP8 support, but INT8 fine-tuning via TensorRT is well-supported. For full fine-tuning of larger models, the lack of NVLink limits multi-GPU VRAM pooling.
Batch processing
For batch inference, embedding generation, and offline scoring workloads, the A40 delivers reliable throughput with data-center ECC memory. Its 48 GB capacity is useful for workloads that need large VRAM without paying for HBM bandwidth.