Around $1,000 the sensible core is a 16 GB card: the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB has the same VRAM as cards costing twice as much, at lower bandwidth.
| Part | Choice | Price / what to check |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB (16 GB) | $429 launch MSRP |
| CPU | Current 6–8 core desktop CPU | Any recent 6–8 core chip is enough; LLM speed depends on the GPU |
| Motherboard | Matching socket | A budget board is fine; check PCIe x16 slot |
| RAM | 32 GB DDR5 | Two sticks for dual-channel; see RAM prices |
| Storage | 1–2 TB NVMe SSD | A Q4 70B model file is ≈40 GB; leave room for several models |
| PSU | Per GPU maker's recommendation | Use the wattage on the GPU maker's spec page |
| Case | Fits GPU length/thickness | Check the case's max GPU length against the card |
Only GPU prices are cited (NVIDIA launch MSRP). Other parts are listed with what to check rather than a price, because we do not yet track live prices; the total may differ from the headline budget. Target example: Qwen3 14B at Q4 needs ≈12 GB.
| GPU | VRAM | Memory bandwidth | Launch MSRP (US) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | 16 GB | 448 GB/s | $429 | NVIDIA: GeForce RTX 5060 family specs; NVIDIA Newsroom (Apr 2025): RTX 5060 family pricing; Wikipedia: GeForce RTX 50 series (memory bandwidth table) |
VRAM and bus width from NVIDIA spec pages; bandwidth from Wikipedia series tables (not listed on NVIDIA pages); MSRPs from NVIDIA press releases. Current street prices: TBD.
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