Budget AI GPUs - is there a middleground between 3060 and 3090?

I'm currently building a very budget-oriented AI / homelab PC using used parts. I've been saving up (I'm a student), and I'm working on a setup costing around 330€ total. The specs are: Xeon E-2124: Nothing special, but supports AVX2 32GB DDR4-2666 ECC RTX 3060 12GB The latter is the thing I'm still thinking about. Where I'm from, 3060s with 12GB cost around 170-200€. But I'm actually willing to spend around 300-400€ on the GPU alone. However, according to all the guides and recommendations out there, the next upgrade that's really worthwhile would be a 3090 with 24GB. The only problem is that those cost around 1000€, which is WELL over my budget. As far as I understand, VRAM size and bandwidth are the only things that REALLY matter. So, is there anything around my desired price range that's actually better than a 12GB 3060? I've read a lot of forum posts and blogs absolutely advising against Intel Arc or AMD GPUs, so I guess a 24GB B580 isn't an option? On paper, 24GB for 400€ new sounds like a terrific deal. EDIT: just saw, the B580 actually DOESN't have 24 gigs, probably just a figment of my imagination :) Btw. I'm running TrueNAS Scale with the Ollama App (+ Open WebUI obviously). I'm planning to use this as a complete replacement for ChatGPT, Copilot, etc. — coding, chatting, research for school, personal projects, and so on. EDITEDIT: I KNOW this ain't gonna be the next AI supercomputer. I KNOW I won't be competing with paid ChatGPT. OBVIOUSLY. This is for BASIC tasks, not huge agentic workflows or whatever. My motivation is simply to get a 7-9b model running as a nice little chatbot without corporate control. Thank you for your understanding. :) submitted by /u/TwingoBingo_ [link] [comments]

Source: r/ollama | 2026-08-14

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