6 articles · newest first
12GB of VRAM at ~$249, and the one card the 2026 price surge barely touched. Superb budget hardware for local LLMs — if you can live with Intel's software tax. My honest take on who should buy one.
Voltage · Sep 22 · 8 min
AI demand spiked consumer GPU prices into a mid-2026 peak — and they're cooling off it now, unevenly. The current numbers vs MSRP, why the RTX 5090 won't budge, and what's actually worth buying.
Voltage · Sep 22 · 7 min
The one rule is buy VRAM, not benchmarks — and 2026's price surge is now cooling. My current, honest map: which card for which budget (Arc B580 to RTX 5090), what each actually runs, and when to rent or go unified-memory instead.
Tensor · Aug 14 · 11 min
Intel's $250 Arc B580 undercuts everyone at the entry level, and the 16GB mid-range from AMD and Nvidia finally makes sense. Here's the best value graphics card at every budget tier in 2026.
Voltage · Jul 31 · 11 min
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.
Tensor · Jul 28 · 9 min
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.
Voltage · Jul 22 · 9 min