Hey team,
Years ago, SO gifted me an Alienware Aurora R7.
It has an Intel I7-8700 and Nvidia GTX 1080 (8GB VRAM), 16 GB of DDR 4 RAM. (what else is relevant to this question?)
My question to you is basically this -
Given that I’m not gaming with it anymore, I want to use it for only two things -
- Plex Server
- Running random local LLM stuff like Kotaemon (https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon)
Let’s say I have $1000 to throw at a GPU and I’d like to get 16 GB VRAM (or 24 if it’s possible). I want to install it myself rather than take it into a shop.
What’s a GPU I can buy that will fit,
- within my budget?
- within the chassis?
- with the CPU and motherboard without issues?
- with the needs I’ve detailed (namely Plex transcoding, and running ML models)?
I am an absolute noob when it comes to figuring out what hardware to buy (hey, we got us an Alienware sucker here).
So lemmings, help me out! I’d rather not ask ChatGPT.
This thing is just a 150 euro… what is it? A GPU on top of my GPU?
As far as I understand it, it’s a GPU optimised for ML, prioritising VRAM over speed.
I think the K80 can only use 12GB of vram for llm stuff. I’d look into it before buying. I’m no expert.
Yeah I just read up a little on it. Seems it doesn’t have video out? So it only does processing? That’s kinda cool!
It’s only good for data processing and can’t be used for gaming. It’s basically like two GTX 760s glued together with a fuck ton of vram. Also you need a server to use it properly. You can funnel air through it using desk fans but you cannot use this thing unmodified in a desktop.