RTX 5090 VRAM sparks local LLM debate

VRAM capacity remains the ultimate bottleneck for local LLM hobbyists, making a single flagship GPU a difficult choice compared to high-RAM Macs or dual-GPU PC setups. The RTX 5090's 32GB VRAM is insufficient for 70B models at high quantization, forcing slow system RAM offloading that kills performance. While Blackwell’s native FP4 support offers potential throughput gains, Mac Studio's unified memory provides a more seamless solution for massive models that would otherwise require multiple GPUs. Professional alternatives like the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell offer lower power draw but lack the driver optimizations required for combined gaming and AI workloads.