Best GPU for Local AI Summarization

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 21, 2026

Ranked for summarization: Condensing long inputs — transcripts, threads, reports — into accurate short output.

Best overall: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

32 GB VRAM at 1792 GB/s. It runs 79 of the models that qualify for this workload; the strongest is Gemma 4 31B at an estimated 59.4 tokens/sec.

The picks

	GPU	VRAM	MSRP	Models that fit	Best model it runs	Est. speed
Best overall	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090	32 GB	$1,999	79	Gemma 4 31B	~59.4 tok/s
Best value	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT	20 GB	$899	69	Gemma 4 31B	~28.6 tok/s
Budget pick	Intel Arc B570	10 GB	$219	56	Qwen 3.5 14B	~29.1 tok/s
Most memory	NVIDIA DGX Spark	128 GB	$4,699	92	Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B	~25.8 tok/s

GPU	Score	VRAM	MSRP	Models fit	Est. speed	Tok/s per watt	Cost per model
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090	77.4	32 GB	$1,999	79	~59.4	0.1	$25
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	73.3	24 GB	$999	79	~33.9	0.1	$13
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	73	24 GB	$1,599	79	~35.5	0.08	$20
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	70.8	24 GB	$1,499	79	~33.1	0.09	$19
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT	67.7	20 GB	$899	69	~28.6	0.09	$13
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060	49.5	8 GB	$299	46	~49.5	0.34	$7
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB	45.1	8 GB	$379	46	~49.5	0.28	$8
Intel Arc B580	44.9	12 GB	$249	57	~34.5	0.18	$4
AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB	44.7	8 GB	$299	46	~36.5	0.24	$7
AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395	42.4	96 GB	$1,999	92	~24.3	0.2	$22
NVIDIA DGX Spark	42.2	128 GB	$4,699	92	~25.8	0.17	$51
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT	41.5	16 GB	$499	64	~45.9	0.17	$8

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.
Reasoning-led but with a real creative weight (35%), because a summary is judged on readability as well as coverage. The low quality floor (45) reflects that summarization is the workload small models handle best relative to their size.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 — 32 GB of VRAM runs 79 qualifying models, the strongest being Gemma 4.

The Intel Arc B570 at $219, which runs 56 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.