The NVIDIA A2 Tensor Core GPU offers an entry-level inference solution combining low power consumption, compact size, and robust performance tailored for intelligent video analytics (IVA) and NVIDIA AI applications at the edge. Designed as a low-profile PCIe Gen4 card with a configurable thermal design power (TDP) ranging from 40 to 60 watts, the A2 delivers flexible inference acceleration suitable for any server environment.
With its versatile design, small form factor, and energy efficiency, the A2 surpasses typical requirements for large-scale edge deployments. It effectively transforms entry-level CPU servers into powerful inference engines. Servers equipped with the A2 GPU achieve up to 20 times greater inference throughput compared to CPU-only configurations and enable IVA deployments that are 1.3 times more efficient than those using previous-generation GPUs all while maintaining an affordable entry price.
Certified NVIDIA systems featuring the A2 alongside A30 and A100 Tensor Core GPUs, integrated with NVIDIA AI technologies such as the NVIDIA Triton Inference Server (an open-source inference service), provide unprecedented inference performance across edge, data center, and cloud platforms. This results in AI-powered applications running on fewer servers, consuming less power, simplifying deployment, accelerating insights, and significantly reducing operational costs.
| · GPU Architecture: NVIDIA Ampere |
| · CUDA Cores: 1280 |
| · Tensor Cores: 40 (3rd Generation) |
| · RT Cores: 108 (2nd Generation) |
| · Peak FP32 Performance: 4.5 TFLOPS |
| · Peak TF32 Tensor Core Performance: 9 TFLOPS (18 TFLOPS with sparsity) |
| · Peak FP16 Tensor Core Performance: 18 TFLOPS (36 TFLOPS with sparsity) |
| · INT8 Performance: 36 TOPS (72 TOPS with sparsity) |
| · INT4 Performance: 72 TOPS (144 TOPS with sparsity) |
| · GPU Memory: 16 GB GDDR6 ECC |
| · Memory Bandwidth: 200 GB/s |
| · Thermal Solution: Passive cooling |
| · Maximum Power Consumption: 40-60 Watts (configurable) |
| · System Interface: PCIe Gen 4.0 x8 |
The NVIDIA A2 is equipped with the latest third-generation Tensor Cores, which significantly enhance AI computation by supporting a wide range of numerical precisions. From extremely low-precision integer formats such as INT4, which accelerate inference for quantized AI models, up to full precision FP32 for training and complex calculations, these Tensor Cores enable efficient, high-speed processing. Moreover, NVIDIA’s automatic mixed precision (AMP) technology dynamically adjusts precision during AI workloads, balancing accuracy and performance to deliver optimal results with less energy consumption.
Ray tracing, traditionally used in graphics rendering, is also powerful in AI-related tasks such as denoising and environment simulation. The NVIDIA A2 includes second-generation RT Cores designed to accelerate these ray tracing operations with up to twice the throughput compared to previous generations. This means faster and more realistic rendering of complex scenes and improved performance when running AI workloads that depend on ray tracing, all while supporting concurrent tasks such as shading and denoising simultaneously.
Modern AI models often contain millions or billions of parameters, but not all of these are necessary for accurate predictions. Structural sparsity is a method where less important parameters are pruned or skipped during computation, resulting in faster and more efficient processing. The NVIDIA A2 supports structural sparsity, which can double compute performance for sparse AI models compared to older GPUs. This makes it highly effective for inference tasks and can even accelerate the training phase by focusing compute power on the most critical data points.
Security is paramount when deploying AI at the edge, especially in enterprise settings where sensitive data and mission-critical operations are involved. The NVIDIA A2 GPU incorporates a hardened root of trust, ensuring secure boot sequences and trusted code authentication. It also includes rollback protections to prevent attackers from exploiting older vulnerable software versions. These features safeguard workloads against malware and unauthorized tampering, guaranteeing uninterrupted and secure AI acceleration.
In intelligent video analytics (IVA) and other real-time video applications, decoding and encoding video streams quickly and efficiently is essential. The A2 GPU integrates dedicated hardware encoders and decoders for the latest video codecs including H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), VP9, and AV1. This hardware acceleration offloads intensive video processing tasks from the CPU, enabling real-time, low-latency video analytics at the edge with minimal power consumption and maximum throughput.
The NVIDIA A2’s low-profile PCIe Gen4 card design fits easily into a wide range of server configurations, especially where space and power are limited. Its configurable thermal design power (TDP) between 40 and 60 watts allows data center operators to balance performance and energy consumption according to their needs. This makes the A2 ideal for dense edge deployments and scalable server infrastructures.
Many data centers still rely on entry-level CPU servers for inference tasks. By integrating the NVIDIA A2 GPU, these existing servers can be upgraded without complete system replacement, achieving up to 20 times higher inference throughput. This not only extends the life of current hardware investments but also significantly improves the performance of AI applications like video analytics and natural language processing.
The A2 works seamlessly within the broader NVIDIA AI ecosystem. Certified systems combining A2, A30, and A100 GPUs with AI software such as the NVIDIA Triton Inference Server provide end-to-end solutions for deploying AI models. This ecosystem ensures optimized software and hardware integration, simplifying deployment across edge, cloud, and data centers. Users benefit from fewer servers, lower power consumption, and faster insights, reducing overall costs and operational complexity.
| · GPU Architecture: NVIDIA Ampere |
| · CUDA Cores: 1280 |
| · Tensor Cores: 40 (3rd Generation) |
| · RT Cores: 108 (2nd Generation) |
| · Peak FP32 Performance: 4.5 TFLOPS |
| · Peak TF32 Tensor Core Performance: 9 TFLOPS (18 TFLOPS with sparsity) |
| · Peak FP16 Tensor Core Performance: 18 TFLOPS (36 TFLOPS with sparsity) |
| · INT8 Performance: 36 TOPS (72 TOPS with sparsity) |
| · INT4 Performance: 72 TOPS (144 TOPS with sparsity) |
| · GPU Memory: 16 GB GDDR6 ECC |
| · Memory Bandwidth: 200 GB/s |
| · Thermal Solution: Passive cooling |
| · Maximum Power Consumption: 40-60 Watts (configurable) |
| · System Interface: PCIe Gen 4.0 x8 |
Entry‑Level Inference with Low Power & Compact Design
The A2 delivers entry-level AI inference in a space- and power-efficient form factor. Its low-profile PCIe Gen 4 card operates with a configurable TDP ranging from 40 W to 60 W, ideal for edge and space-constrained servers.
Ampere Architecture with Third‑Gen Tensor & Second‑Gen RT Cores
Powered by NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture, the A2 features 40 third-generation Tensor Cores (supporting INT4 through FP32 precision) and 10 second-generation RT Cores, delivering robust performance for AI inference, ray tracing, and rendering tasks .
High Compute Efficiency—Up to 20× Faster Than CPU
Compared to CPU-only servers, the A2 yields up to 20× increase in inference performance across vision, NLP, and speech pipelines, making it a transformative upgrade for entry-level systems .
Optimal for Intelligent Video Analytics (IVA)
Tuned for IVA workloads, the A2 achieves up to 1.3× better performance than the T4 while delivering up to 1.6× improved price-performance and ~10% energy savings, making it ideal for smart cities, retail analytics, and industrial automation .
Compact 16 GB GDDR6 Memory & Media Engines
With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 200 GB/s bandwidth, plus dedicated media engines (1 encoder, 2 decoders with AV1 support), the A2 efficiently handles video streams, analytics, and light rendering tasks .
Passive Cooling and Flexible Deployment
Featuring a passively cooled design with bidirectional airflow compatibility and a single-slot, half-height/half-length form factor, the A2 integrates seamlessly into existing servers without requiring extra power connectors .
Enterprise‑Grade Security and Virtualization Support
Equipped with a hardware “Root of Trust” for secure boot, firmware validation, and rollback protection—with optional CEC support—and compatible with NVIDIA Virtual GPU (vGPU), RTX Virtual Workstation, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software.
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