Best GPU for Local AI Mathematics

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 21, 2026

Ranked for mathematics and quantitative work: Symbolic and numerical problem solving, proofs, and step-by-step quantitative reasoning.

Best overall: Intel Arc B580

12 GB VRAM at 456 GB/s. It runs 50 of the models that qualify for this workload; the strongest is Qwen 3 14B at an estimated 33 tokens/sec.

The picks

	GPU	VRAM	MSRP	Models that fit	Best model it runs	Est. speed
Best overall	Intel Arc B580	12 GB	$249	50	Qwen 3 14B	~33 tok/s
Best value	Intel Arc B570	10 GB	$219	49	Qwen 3 14B	~27.8 tok/s
Budget pick	Intel Arc B570	10 GB	$219	49	Qwen 3 14B	~27.8 tok/s
Most memory	NVIDIA DGX Spark	128 GB	$4,699	87	Qwen 3 32B	~9.6 tok/s

GPU	Score	VRAM	MSRP	Models fit	Est. speed	Tok/s per watt	Cost per model
Intel Arc B580	69.9	12 GB	$249	50	~33	0.17	$5
NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation	69.7	48 GB	$6,799	79	~32	0.11	$86
Intel Arc B570	68.3	10 GB	$219	49	~27.8	0.19	$4
NVIDIA L40S	66.7	48 GB	$7,499	79	~29	0.08	$95
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT	66.3	16 GB	$499	57	~43.9	0.17	$9
AMD Radeon RX 9070	66	16 GB	$549	57	~44.9	0.2	$10
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090	65.7	32 GB	$1,999	74	~57.4	0.1	$27
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070	65.6	12 GB	$549	50	~46.9	0.19	$11
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT	65.3	16 GB	$599	57	~49.7	0.23	$11
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB)	63.2	10 GB	$699	49	~52.4	0.16	$14
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti	62.9	16 GB	$749	57	~60.5	0.2	$13
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super	62.7	16 GB	$799	57	~46.9	0.16	$14

GPUs are scored on four axes: capability (45%), speed (30%), value (20%) and efficiency (5%), each normalised across the whole ranking.
Capability means the intrinsic strength of the best model the card can hold — not how many models fit, and not how fast it streams a small one.
Speed is capped at 40 tok/s: past that, more throughput does not change how the model feels to use.
Apple Silicon is excluded from this ranking. Those entries price a whole computer and rate a chip's package power, so on price-per-capability and performance-per-watt they would beat every add-in card by construction. Apple hardware is covered on the macOS platform page instead.
The most concentrated capability weighting in the set: 85% reasoning, no creative weight at all. The quality floor of 70 is the highest anywhere here, because arithmetic and proof errors are silent — a plausible-looking wrong answer is worse than a refusal.

The Intel Arc B580 — 12 GB of VRAM runs 50 qualifying models, the strongest being Qwen 3.

The Intel Arc B570 at $219, which runs 49 qualifying models.

8 GB is the entry point at which a model for this workload will run at all. More memory buys a stronger model, not just a faster one.