PCIe bottleneck dilemma: Adding RAM vs. GPU for local AI workloads

dsdt · reddit · 2026-08-28

A user seeks advice on upgrading a build (x870e, 9700x, dual 5060 ti, 32GB RAM) for local AI. The choice is between adding another 32GB RAM for dual-channel or a third 5060 ti for more VRAM. The constraint is the motherboard's PCIe slot layout (x16/x4/x1), forcing the new GPU to run at x1 bandwidth. The user is concerned about performance impact from the limited PCIe lanes and currently runs Q6 with 132k context at 70 t/s.

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