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infrastructure · 2026-05-12

Why we chose Blackwell over Hopper for 405B-class inference.

clusterbid infrastructure team · 14 min read

The B200 SXM5 is not a generational upgrade from H100 — it is a different substrate for a different workload. At 405B parameters in BF16, the HBM3e bandwidth changes what 'good' looks like in ways that matter to us. Here is the full analysis that justified the infrastructure bet.

The B200 SXM5 is not a generational upgrade from H100 — it is a different substrate for a different workload. At 405B parameters in BF16, the HBM3e bandwidth changes what "good" looks like in ways that matter to us. Here is the full analysis that justified the infrastructure bet.


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