NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB

The 16 GB RTX 4060 Ti is the value end of the 16 GB tier: 16 GB of GDDR6 at 288 GB/s. It is not fast — half the bandwidth of the newer RTX 5060 Ti 16GB — but memory, not bandwidth, decides which models fit, and this is the cheapest 16 GB card you can buy: ~$575–900 new as of October 2026.

What it runs well:

• 8B models at Q4 (4.9 GB) with plenty of room for context — 40–55 tok/s (bandwidth-based estimate)
• 14B models at Q4 (9.3 GB) — 20–30 tok/s (bandwidth-based estimate)
• SDXL-class image generation

What it does not do: 24B models at Q4 (~15 GB) leave almost no room for context, so expect offloading. 12–14B at Q8 (≈12–14 GB plus overhead) is borderline; at this price Q4 is the honest choice.

Trade-offs: 288 GB/s of bandwidth makes it the slowest 16 GB option. If the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB at ~$780 (448 GB/s GDDR7) is in your budget, it is the better buy — see the ranked GPU list. The card itself draws 165 W, so a mid-range PSU covers the whole system.

Verdict: the default first GPU for local AI when the 5060 Ti is priced out. Check the VRAM calculator for your model, and browse the hardware pillar for the other tiers.