Skip to content
ProductArena

GPUs & AI Accelerators Arena

GPUs & AI Accelerators arenaBuyer checklist

Every requirement we judge gpus & ai accelerators products against, as a ready-to-send RFP checklist — with each item's priority, why it matters, and how the top-ranked products score on it today.

43 requirements · 12 themes · verdicts for 8 products · updated 2026-09-15 · priorities mirror the story weights our scoring uses (methodology)

Procurement report →
Show the markdown export
# GPUs & AI Accelerators — buyer checklist (RFP)

Derived from ProductArena's evidence-graded user-story taxonomy for GPUs & AI Accelerators: 43 judged requirements. Priorities mirror story weights (3 = must-have, 2 = should-have, 1 = nice-to-have).

## Agenticness

- [ ] **[must-have]** Plug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools
- [ ] **[must-have]** Connect an agent via an official MCP server
- [ ] **[must-have]** Drive the product through a documented public API
- [ ] **[must-have]** Delegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product
- [ ] **[should-have]** Point an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs
- [ ] **[should-have]** Run the product headlessly / in CI for automation
- [ ] **[should-have]** Use an official CLI
- [ ] **[should-have]** Issue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent
- [ ] **[should-have]** Build against official SDKs
- [ ] **[should-have]** Subscribe to events via webhooks
- [ ] **[should-have]** Get AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product
- [ ] **[should-have]** Set up automations that run autonomously in the background
- [ ] **[should-have]** Operate the product with natural-language commands
- [ ] **[should-have]** Explore an interactive API reference with runnable examples
- [ ] **[should-have]** Download a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent)
- [ ] **[should-have]** Rely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Test against a sandbox environment without touching production data

## Ai compute

- [ ] **[must-have]** This GPU has a documented LLM inference story — low-precision formats (FP8/FP4) and supported serving stacks (TensorRT-LLM, vLLM, ROCm, llama.cpp) for this part
- [ ] **[must-have]** Size training and inference from published tensor throughput — TFLOPS or TOPS with precision and sparsity stated, not a bare marketing number

## Automation depth

- [ ] **[must-have]** Define rules that trigger actions automatically on events
- [ ] **[should-have]** Perform bulk operations across many items at once
- [ ] **[should-have]** Schedule recurring jobs or workflows
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Version, review, and roll back my automations

## Creator media

- [ ] **[should-have]** Hardware media engines and creator-app acceleration are documented — AV1/HEVC encoders, and professional or ISV-certified driver support where the vendor claims it

## Datacenter scale

- [ ] **[must-have]** Train and serve at datacenter scale on this part — documented high-bandwidth interconnect (NVLink, Infinity Fabric), multi-GPU systems, and rack-scale deployment

## Driver openness

- [ ] **[should-have]** Linux is a first-class citizen for this GPU — documented Linux driver releases and independent Linux testing of this part
- [ ] **[should-have]** Run this GPU on an open driver — open-source kernel modules or upstream Linux support documented by the vendor

## Gaming performance

- [ ] **[must-have]** This card drives high-refresh 4K gaming — vendor performance claims corroborated by independent game benchmarks
- [ ] **[should-have]** AI upscaling and frame generation are supported on this card — the DLSS or FSR generation is documented for this part, with broad game support

## Memory vram

- [ ] **[must-have]** Run a 70B-class quantized LLM on this GPU — published VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth that make local or single-node inference practical
- [ ] **[should-have]** Memory specs are published in full for this exact part — capacity, memory type, bus width, and bandwidth

## Openness

- [ ] **[must-have]** Export all of my data in open formats and leave
- [ ] **[must-have]** Self-host the core product
- [ ] **[should-have]** Do everything through the API that I can do in the UI
- [ ] **[should-have]** Read the product's source under an open license

## Power cooling

- [ ] **[should-have]** Sustained workloads are power-efficient on this part — documented power envelopes with independent performance-per-watt testing
- [ ] **[should-have]** Spec a build around published board power — TDP/TGP, connector requirements, and cooling guidance for this exact card

## Privacy posture

- [ ] **[must-have]** Prevent my data from being used to train AI models
- [ ] **[should-have]** Choose where my data is stored (region/residency)
- [ ] **[should-have]** Control data retention and deletion
- [ ] **[should-have]** Opt out of telemetry and usage tracking

## Software toolchain

- [ ] **[must-have]** Ship GPU-compute workloads on the vendor's toolchain — CUDA or ROCm/HIP documentation lists this part as a supported target
- [ ] **[should-have]** PyTorch and mainstream ML frameworks run on this GPU through officially documented builds and support matrices

---

Source: https://ultrametric.ai/productarena/arena/gpus (evidence-graded verdicts for 8 products) · methodology: https://ultrametric.ai/productarena/methodology

Chips show the top 5 ranked products' current verdict on each requirement — ✓ full · ~ partial · ! disputed · — none · n/a not applicable.

Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness· 17 items

How well agents can access and operate the product

Ai compute — stories about ai compute in this arenaAi compute· 2 items

Stories about ai compute in this arena

Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth· 4 items

How much of the product can run unattended

Creator media — stories about creator media in this arenaCreator media· 1 item

Stories about creator media in this arena

Datacenter scale — stories about datacenter scale in this arenaDatacenter scale· 1 item

Stories about datacenter scale in this arena

Driver openness — stories about driver openness in this arenaDriver openness· 2 items

Stories about driver openness in this arena

Gaming performance — stories about gaming performance in this arenaGaming performance· 2 items

Stories about gaming performance in this arena

Memory vram — stories about memory vram in this arenaMemory vram· 2 items

Stories about memory vram in this arena

Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness· 4 items

Open source, data portability, and self-hosting stories

Power cooling — stories about power cooling in this arenaPower cooling· 2 items

Stories about power cooling in this arena

Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture· 4 items

Data-handling and privacy stories

Software toolchain — stories about software toolchain in this arenaSoftware toolchain· 2 items

Stories about software toolchain in this arena

Full evidence behind every verdict lives on the arena page and each product page — chips above deep-link straight to the judged story.