What's better? 24gb vram with 128gb ddr5 OR 32gb vram with 64gb ddr5?

Reddit r/LocalLLaMA / 2026/3/24

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要点

  • The post asks which upgrade path is better for a local AI/LLM setup: 24GB VRAM with 128GB DDR5 versus 32GB VRAM with 64GB DDR5, given the same budget constraint.
  • The author is leaning toward the 24GB/128GB option, arguing that many smaller dense models will fit in 24GB so the extra 8GB VRAM may not yield major gains.
  • They expect the larger DDR5 capacity (64GB → 128GB) to broaden options for larger Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models.
  • The discussion also raises practical considerations like fan/noise levels and whether the Blackwell “Pro” GPUs are quiet at idle and under light workloads.
  • Overall, it frames the decision as a tradeoff between GPU memory (model fit/performance) and system RAM (supporting broader model/pipeline options), with noise as an operational factor.

Have the budget for 1 of 2 upgrade paths.

1) Rtx 4000 pro blackwell with 24gb vram and 128gb ddr5 or 2) Rtx 4500 pro blackwell with 32gb vram and 64gb ddr5

Leaning towards 1) because many of the smaller dense models will fit in 24gb, so not sure 24gb to 32gb vram gains a lot. But in going from 64gb to 128gb ddr5 it opens up the options for some larger MoE models.

And how is the noise levels of the pro blackwell cards? Are they quiet at idle and light loads?

submitted by /u/SFsports87
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