budget-gpu

8 articles · newest first

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card box next to a 360mm liquid cooling radiator

AMD is basically giving away an $89 cooler with this 16GB GPU — the local-AI math actually works

a limited-time Newegg bundle drops the effective price of a 16GB RX 9070 XT to $659 — here's whether that's actually a good local-AI buy

Nadia Rahman · 2d ago · 5 min

Budget graphics cards for local AI, including the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

Hardware

I put three budget GPUs head-to-head for local AI — only one earns its higher price

Arc B580, RX 9060 XT 16GB, and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB are all fighting for the same budget local-AI buyer in 2026. Real prices and real bandwidth numbers settle it.

Ravi Malhotra · 2d ago · 6 min

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 budget graphics card

Hardware

Nvidia's new RTX 5050 is barely faster than a GPU from 2021 — skip it

It launched at $249 promising a fresh budget option. A few months later, a used RTX 3070 for about the same money makes it a hard sell.

Ravi Malhotra · 4d ago · 6 min

AMD Radeon RX 9050 graphics card, AMD's new entry-level RDNA 4 GPU

Hardware

AMD brought back the 4GB graphics card everyone agreed was dead — here's why

The $279 RX 9050 looks like a normal budget GPU launch, until you notice AMD quietly brought back a 64-bit, 4GB memory config nobody's shipped since 2022.

Ravi Malhotra · 5d ago · 6 min

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card standing upright against a dark background

Hardware

the RTX 5060 just jumped $75 overnight in China — and that's usually how it starts

A $299 budget GPU got $75 pricier in 72 hours flat. Here's the actual chain of events, and the honest call on buying now versus waiting.

Ravi Malhotra · 6d ago · 7 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.

Ravi Malhotra · Jul 28 · 9 min

Three graphics cards lined up, representing budget GPU options

you don't need a $2,000 card to run AI at home. here's the honest budget GPU ladder, from $250 up

Every 'best budget GPU' list is a spec dump. This is a decision: three cards under $500, what each can actually run, and the one number — VRAM — that tells you which to buy without reading a benchmark.

Ravi Malhotra · Jul 22 · 9 min

Close-up of a GeForce RTX graphics card installed in a PC

the $549 new GPU or the $1,000 used one? for local AI, the old card wins — and it's not close

A new RTX 5060 Ti 16GB looks like the safe budget pick. But 16GB can't load the 32B models a used 3090 runs at 30 tokens/sec — and in local AI, the card that opens the file wins before speed matters.

Ravi Malhotra · Jul 22 · 9 min