Which hosting providers offer the best GPU support for AI applications?

Question

Need to get this fine-tuning job started like yesterday since my project deadline is next Friday. I've been looking at Lambda Labs because their prices for A100s are insane but they're literally always sold out whenever I check the dashboard. My logic was that Vultr might be more reliable for availability but their pricing is a bit steeper and I only have a $450 budget for this month. Then there's Paperspace but I've heard mixed things about their support. I'm torn between waiting for a Lambda instance or just biting the bullet on Vultr so I dont fall behind... is the Vultr performance actually worth the extra cash?

Tom_Lens · Accepted Answer

Check RunPod NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB instances. Theyre significantly cheaper than Vultr and should help you stay under that $450 budget while meeting your Friday deadline.

Saker · Answer

> I'm torn between waiting for a Lambda instance or just biting the bullet on Vultr so I dont fall behind... Honestly, dont wait for Lambda. If you have a deadline next Friday, the wait time is gonna kill your project. I run Vultr NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe instances when I need guaranteed uptime. Its pricier, but the performance is consistent and they actually have stock. Your $450 budget should get you enough hours to finish a standard fine-tuning run.

CelticDerbyday · Answer

Coming back to this... I totally get the Lambda frustration, it's basically a lottery at this point. I was in a similar spot last month trying to tune a Llama model on a shoestring budget. If Vultr feels too pricey for that $450 cap, you might wanna look at something like RunPod or even NVIDIA A100 80GB Tensor Core GPU instances on CoreWeave. I've had decent luck with spot instances which usually cut the price in half if you dont mind the occasional interruption. A few things I noticed when I was digging through specs:

Vultr is solid for uptime but you're definitely paying a premium for that brand name.

If your model fits, you might actually get away with a NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation 48GB instead of a full A100 and save a ton of cash.

Interconnects are huge... make sure you check if they offer NVLink if you end up needing two cards. Honestly, for $450 you'll get way more hours on a community cloud than a Tier 1. Just make sure you've got your checkpoints saving to an external bucket so you dont lose work if the instance gets yanked tho.