Ranked guide
Best GPU for AI
Ranked by the largest open model each card loads cleanly at a quality quantization with llama.cpp at 8K context — the honest measure of what a GPU can do for local AI, since VRAM decides what fits before speed matters at all. Consumer cards only; workstation cards are ranked separately because a $4,000 48GB board wins on memory alone and would top every list.
How we rank
By the largest model each card loads cleanly (quality quantization, no CPU offload, 8K context), then by VRAM, then by price. No benchmark scores and no tokens-per-second claims — we publish speed as a tier, never a number. Full methodology. Pool: Consumer GPUs only — see the workstation guide for 48GB boards.
| # | GPU | VRAM | Bandwidth | MSRP | Runs up to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 | 32 GB | 1790 GB/s | $1,999 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B |
| 2 | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTXbeta | 24 GB | 960 GB/s | $999 | Qwen3-30B-A3B |
| 3 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | 24 GB | 936.2 GB/s | $1,499 | Qwen3-30B-A3B |
| 4 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | 24 GB | 1010 GB/s | $1,599 | Qwen3-30B-A3B |
| 5 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | 24 GB | 1010 GB/s | $1,999 | Qwen3-30B-A3B |
| 6 | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTbeta | 20 GB | 800 GB/s | $899 | Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501 |
| 7 | Intel Arc A770 16 GBbeta | 16 GB | 560 GB/s | $349 | gpt-oss-20b |
| 8 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | 16 GB | 448 GB/s | $429 | gpt-oss-20b |
| 9 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB | 16 GB | 288 GB/s | $499 | gpt-oss-20b |
| 10 | AMD Radeon RX 7800 XTbeta | 16 GB | 624 GB/s | $499 | gpt-oss-20b |
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Ranking a card is not the same as checking your machine. Run the exact check for the model you have in mind, or build a full stack from a budget.