Racks & Watts
Guides
How we set up power limits, voice assistants, remote access and quiet always-on boxes.
- GuideBest budget GPU for local LLMs in 2026: 6 GB, 8 GB or 12 GB, measured
September 2026 prices and our bench numbers: 12 GB is the line that matters for local LLMs. A refurbished RTX 3060 12 GB beats a new 8 GB card for Ollama on a $250–$550 budget.
- GuideNVIDIA power limits for local LLMs: we swept 100 to 200 W so you can cap with confidence
We swept an RTX 3060 Ti from 100 to 200 W under Ollama. 150 W cost 3% speed for 25% less draw. Here's the cap we'd pick, the nvidia-smi commands, and how to reapply it at boot.