What can your computer run?
Answer four quick questions and we'll email you a free, personalized setup report, written by a human, in plain English, for your exact situation.
See what your computer can run
This list updates itself from the open-source community and picks models that fit your device. No hardcoded guesses.
What graphics cards actually buy you
Every platform gets you there a different way. Pick a vendor tab to see the lineup and the jobs each card handles.
Mac (Apple Silicon)
One shared memory pool for processor and graphics: quiet, efficient, always-on friendly. Apple-optimized apps unlock bigger models than you'd expect from a laptop.
NVIDIA
The speed-per-dollar king. CUDA is the best-supported AI stack, so everything just works. From a used 3060 to the 5090, this is the default upgrade path.
AMD
Strong value. The RX 7900 XTX rivals the big NVIDIAs for less money, and AMD's software support keeps improving month by month.
Intel
The budget wildcard. Arc cards like the B580 put 12 GB of VRAM in reach for the price of a nice dinner out. Fine for everyday models.
AI PCs
Appliance simplicity: DGX Spark, Strix Halo minis, Mac Studio. One big memory pool, zero tinkering. More below.
| Card | Usable memory | The jobs it handles |
|---|---|---|
| RTX 3060 | 12 GB VRAM | Everyday chat, summaries, homework help, social drafts |
| RTX 4060 Ti | 16 GB VRAM | Above + real coding help, document analysis |
| RTX 3090 | 24 GB VRAM | Above + deep research, content production at speed |
| RTX 4090 | 24 GB VRAM | Above + image generation, video-gen experiments |
| RTX 5090 | 32 GB VRAM | Everything above, faster + serving the whole house |
| RTX 6000 Ada | 48 GB VRAM | 70B models for a home office or small business |
| Card | Usable memory | The jobs it handles |
|---|---|---|
| RX 7800 XT | 16 GB VRAM | Everyday models, coding help, document analysis |
| RX 7900 XT | 20 GB VRAM | Above + research, content production |
| RX 7900 XTX | 24 GB VRAM | Same class as the 4090: research, creative work, speed |
| Radeon AI PRO R9700 | 32 GB VRAM | AMD's workstation best: 32B models fast, multi-app serving, serious creative work |
| Card | Usable memory | The jobs it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Arc B580 | 12 GB VRAM | Everyday chat, summaries, homework help on a budget |
| Arc A770 | 16 GB VRAM | Above + light coding and document work |
| Mac | Unified memory | The jobs it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Mac mini / MacBook (M-series) | 16–32 GB | Everyday-to-powerful models, the family AI box |
| MacBook Pro / Max chips | 36–128 GB | Flagship 32B models, serious creative work |
| Mac Studio (Ultra) | 192–512 GB | Frontier-class 200B–400B+ models, fully offline |
Going bigger? Get the Home Lab Buyer's Guide
AI PCs vs. multi-GPU builds, what 512 GB actually buys you, real prices, and the mistakes to avoid. Free, straight to your inbox.
The honest fine print
A few things everyone notices in week one, none of them are problems.
The first load takes a moment
The first time you run a model it loads into memory, like an app opening. After that it's quick. Bigger models load slower; that's normal, not broken.
Your fans might spin up
AI is a workout for your processor. A warm laptop and spinning fans while it answers = it's working hard for you. It calms down between answers.
Close heavy apps for big models
Models live in RAM. If things feel sluggish, close the 47 browser tabs first. 8 GB of RAM comfortably runs everyday models; 16 GB runs the good stuff.
It doesn't know today's news
Local models know what they knew when they were made and don't browse the web by default. For current events, that's the one thing you'll still Google.
AI agents: from chatting to doing
Chat answers questions. Agents do the work: they watch, decide, and act on your hardware, under your rules.
What agents actually do
Watch an inbox, folder, or feed and handle the routine work automatically: filing, drafting, scheduling, summarizing, running code, chaining tools together. Like a hire who never sleeps and never phones it in.
The popular ones
OpenClaw, Hermes-class agents, and many others, each better at different jobs. The right pick depends on your use case and your industry, which is exactly the kind of thing we map for people.
We build them
Our team and our community build agents for households and businesses, from "watch this folder" helpers to full workflows that run your back office. Locally, privately, on your terms.
Want an agent working for you?
Tell us the task that eats your week. We'll tell you honestly what it takes to automate it, and whether it's worth automating at all.
Get your free setup report.
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