Guides, answers & tools

AI & Local LLMs

Local models, AI rigs and the tools that run them · page 11

Cloud computing servers representing GPU providers

RunPod vs Vast.ai vs Lambda: which GPU cloud is actually cheapest for AI?

The three big cloud-GPU names price and position themselves very differently. Here's what each actually costs right now (H100 from ~$1.73/hr on Vast, 22 Sep 2026) and which to use.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

Cloud GPU servers in a data center for AI rental

the cheapest way to rent a GPU for AI in 2026 costs less than a coffee an hour — here's the live math

You don't need to buy a $2,000 graphics card to run big AI models. Renting one by the hour starts around $0.12/hr (RTX 3090, Vast spot, 22 Sep 2026). Here's what GPUs actually cost to rent right now.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

Code on a screen representing a local coding model

Qwen3-Coder vs DeepSeek-Coder: which local coding model should actually live on your GPU?

Both are excellent open coding models that run on a single card. But they're tuned differently, and the right one depends on how you code. Here's the honest comparison.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

only got 8GB of VRAM? you can still run real local AI — here's exactly what fits

8GB is the entry floor for local AI, and plenty of capable models run on it if you pick the right size and quantization. Here's what actually works, and the trap to avoid.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

Mac Mini M4 or M4 Pro for local AI? the answer comes down to one number you set at checkout

Both run local models silently and efficiently, but the gap between them for AI isn't the chip — it's the memory bandwidth and how much you can buy. Here's which Mac Mini to get.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

the RTX 3060 12GB is the cheapest sensible way into local AI — and in 2026 it's still the one I recommend first

It's slow, it's old, and it has more VRAM than cards costing twice as much. For a first local-AI GPU, the humble 3060 12GB is still the smart-money entry point.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

how much system RAM do you actually need for local AI? more than you think, if you offload

Everyone obsesses over VRAM, but system RAM matters too — especially the moment you try to run a model bigger than your GPU. Here's the real number for every kind of local-AI setup.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

Intel's $249 Arc B580 has 12GB of VRAM for cheap — but is it actually good for local AI?

On paper, 12GB for $249 is the best VRAM-per-dollar in new cards. In practice, Intel's software stack is the catch. Here's the honest verdict for local AI.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

the RTX 5070 Ti is the 16GB card most local-AI builders should actually buy — here's why

It's the value middle of the Blackwell lineup: 16GB of fast GDDR7, NVFP4 support, and enough speed to run the 14B tier comfortably without paying 5090 money. Is it the right local-AI card for you?

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

Code representing a local AI inference engine

vLLM, Ollama or llama.cpp? the three ways to run local AI, and which one is actually for you

They all run local models, but they're built for completely different people. One's for easy desktop use, one's for flexibility, one's for serving at scale. Here's how to pick without wasting a weekend.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

A data center representing large-scale AI inference

what it really costs to run DeepSeek R1 locally: the full model, the distills, and the honest answer

The full DeepSeek R1 is a 671-billion-parameter monster that needs a small cluster. But its distilled versions run on a single GPU — and knowing the difference saves you a fortune.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

A server GPU representing large model inference

gpt-oss-120b hardware requirements: about 64 GB of memory, and why a smaller quant won't save you

OpenAI's 117B open model ships its experts in 4-bit MXFP4, so the files are about 63 GB whichever quant you pick. Here is how much VRAM and RAM it needs at 8K to 128K context, which GPUs and machines hold it, and when a 24 GB card plus RAM is enough.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

AI-generated art on a screen representing Stable Diffusion

the best GPU for Stable Diffusion in 2026 isn't about raw power — it's about which one won't make you wait

Image generation is compute-bound and VRAM-hungry in a different way than LLMs. Here's the GPU that actually keeps up with SDXL and Flux, and the cheapest one that still does the job.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

Two older NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards, an RTX 20-series Founders Edition and a GTX 1080 Ti, on a dark surface

buying a used RTX 3090 for local AI? the 5-minute check that saves you from a $1,000 mistake

A used 3090 is still the cheapest way to own 24GB of VRAM for local AI, but many were mining cards and the memory runs hot. Rent one for an evening first, then run this five-minute check before you hand over the cash.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

got a 16GB GPU? here's exactly which local AI models fit — and the one tier you should skip

16GB is the awkward middle of local AI: too much for the 8B tier, not enough for 32B. Here's what actually runs well, what to avoid, and how to get the most out of the memory you have.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 9 min

A high-end NVIDIA graphics card for local AI

the best GPU for running Qwen3-32B locally isn't the fastest one — it's the cheapest with 24GB

Qwen3-32B at Q4_K_M needs about 21GiB at 8K context, which rules out every 16GB card and makes this a simple question: what's the cheapest 24GB GPU that runs it? The answer is used, and you can rent one for an hour first.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 7 min

Mathematical equations on a dark background, representing quantization math

NVFP4 is Nvidia's 4-bit trick that gets FP8 accuracy at 3x the speed — but only on Blackwell

The new 4-bit format baked into RTX 50-series and Blackwell chips runs AI models at up to 3x the inference throughput of FP8, at nearly the same accuracy. Here's how it works and why it's exclusive to your newest GPU.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 8 min

A hand holding euro and dollar banknotes, representing rising GPU prices

RTX 50 prices just jumped 59% in China — and the reason means it's coming everywhere. buy now or wait?

MSI, PNY and Colorful raised RTX 50-series distributor prices by up to 59% over MSRP. The cause isn't greed — it's the same memory shortage that's been quietly inflating everything with a chip in it. Here's whether to buy now.

Aliteq Team · Jul 28 · 8 min