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Buyer’s guide

Best used GPUs for local AI

Curated, ranked by $/GB-VRAM. Each card lists what it’s actually good for, what to watch out for on the secondary market, and direct search links to eBay, Newegg, and Amazon.

  1. #1 · NVIDIA

    Tesla M40 24 GB

    Budget24 GB VRAM

    Absolute rock-bottom 24 GB. Mainly for hobbyists who already have homelab gear.

    ⚠ Maxwell — no FP16 acceleration; very slow on modern model formats. Hot, loud, server-only.

    Used price
    $80 – $130
    MSRP
    —
    $/GB used
    $4
    Memory bw
    288 GB/s
    TDP
    250 W
    Released
    2015-11
    CUDA cores
    3,072

    Runs comfortably:

    Qwen 2.5 7B InstructPhi-4
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  2. #2 · NVIDIA

    RTX 3060 12 GB

    Budget12 GB VRAM

    Cheapest path to 12 GB VRAM. 7 B / 8 B LLMs at Q4 fit comfortably.

    ⚠ Slow memory bandwidth caps tok/s — fine for dev, not for production.

    Used price
    $150 – $220
    MSRP
    $280
    $/GB used
    $15
    Memory bw
    360 GB/s
    TDP
    170 W
    Released
    2021-02
    Discount
    ~21% off MSRP
    CUDA cores
    3,584

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 8B InstructQwen 2.5 7B InstructPhi-4Qwen 2.5 Coder 7B
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  3. #3 · NVIDIA

    Tesla P40

    Budget24 GB VRAM

    Cheapest possible 24 GB card. Slow but it works for batch / dev.

    ⚠ Passive cooler — needs a server chassis or a 3D-printed shroud + Noctua. No display output.

    Used price
    $150 – $220
    MSRP
    —
    $/GB used
    $8
    Memory bw
    346 GB/s
    TDP
    250 W
    Released
    2016-09
    CUDA cores
    3,840

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 8B InstructQwen 2.5 7B InstructPhi-4
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  4. #4 · NVIDIA

    RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB

    Budget16 GB VRAM

    16 GB on a low-power card. Quiet, runs cool, fits most cases.

    ⚠ 128-bit bus = bandwidth bottleneck on big models.

    Used price
    $280 – $350
    MSRP
    $449
    $/GB used
    $20
    Memory bw
    288 GB/s
    TDP
    165 W
    Released
    2023-07
    Discount
    ~22% off MSRP
    CUDA cores
    4,352

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 8B InstructPhi-4Gemma 2 9B InstructFLUX.1 Schnell (GGUF)
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  5. #5 · NVIDIA

    RTX 3090

    Best value24 GB VRAM

    The undisputed best $/GB for local LLM. 24 GB at half the price of a 4090.

    ⚠ Mining cards: check thermal pads. Aftermarket cooler if you can find one.

    Used price
    $600 – $800
    MSRP
    —
    $/GB used
    $29
    Memory bw
    936 GB/s
    TDP
    350 W
    Released
    2020-09
    CUDA cores
    10,496

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 8B InstructQwen 2.5 32BPhi-4Qwen 2.5 Coder 14B
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  6. #6 · AMD

    Radeon RX 7900 XTX

    Premium24 GB VRAM

    Best AMD option for ROCm-based local LLM. 24 GB at less than 4090 prices.

    ⚠ ROCm support is OS-specific — Linux first-class, Windows usable, macOS not supported.

    Used price
    $650 – $800
    MSRP
    $999
    $/GB used
    $30
    Memory bw
    960 GB/s
    TDP
    355 W
    Released
    2022-12
    Discount
    ~20% off MSRP

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 8B InstructQwen 2.5 32BPhi-4
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  7. #7 · NVIDIA

    RTX 4080 Super

    Premium16 GB VRAM

    Strong 16 GB option for image gen and 13 B class LLMs.

    ⚠ Less VRAM than 3090 used — only worth it if you also game.

    Used price
    $700 – $850
    MSRP
    $999
    $/GB used
    $48
    Memory bw
    736 GB/s
    TDP
    320 W
    Released
    2024-01
    Discount
    ~15% off MSRP
    CUDA cores
    10,240

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 8B InstructPhi-4FLUX.1 Schnell (GGUF)
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  8. #8 · NVIDIA

    RTX 3090 Ti

    Best value24 GB VRAM

    Marginally faster than 3090 with the same VRAM. Worth a slight premium for cooler/PCB rev.

    ⚠ Bigger TDP, so a stronger PSU. Often less of a discount vs 3090.

    Used price
    $750 – $950
    MSRP
    —
    $/GB used
    $35
    Memory bw
    1008 GB/s
    TDP
    450 W
    Released
    2022-03
    CUDA cores
    10,752

    Runs comfortably:

    Qwen 2.5 32BPhi-4FLUX.1 Dev (GGUF)
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  9. #9 · NVIDIA

    RTX 4090

    Premium24 GB VRAM

    Fastest 24 GB consumer card. Tok/s class-leading; easily hits 90+ on Llama-3.1-8B Q4.

    ⚠ Power-connector horror stories — re-seat the 12VHPWR carefully.

    Used price
    $1,300 – $1,700
    MSRP
    $1,899
    $/GB used
    $63
    Memory bw
    1008 GB/s
    TDP
    450 W
    Released
    2022-10
    Discount
    ~10% off MSRP
    CUDA cores
    16,384

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 8B InstructQwen 2.5 32BFLUX.1 Dev (GGUF)Wan 2.2 TI2V 5B
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →
  10. #10 · NVIDIA

    RTX A6000

    Workstation48 GB VRAM

    48 GB ECC VRAM in a single slot, 300 W. Best workstation card for 70 B at Q4.

    ⚠ Pricey even used; check warranty period left.

    Used price
    $2,800 – $3,800
    MSRP
    $4,500
    $/GB used
    $69
    Memory bw
    768 GB/s
    TDP
    300 W
    Released
    2020-12
    Discount
    ~16% off MSRP
    CUDA cores
    10,752

    Runs comfortably:

    Llama 3.1 70B InstructQwen 2.5 32BFLUX.1 Dev (GGUF)HunyuanVideo 13B
    eBay listings →Newegg →Amazon →

Pricing source: Curated list of the most cost-effective USED GPUs for local AI inference. Prices are typical street prices on the secondary market (eBay sold listings, r/hardwareswap, Mercari) as of April 2026 — refresh quarterly. Last updated 2026-04-29. Amazon links use our affiliate tag.

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