Used RTX 4090 workstation (24 GB)
Discontinued but abundant on the used market, and still the best value per GB/s if you can live with 24 GB. The reference point for 'is a used build cheaper than a new appliance'.
NVIDIAcomponentAvailable14 models fit1 measured
Memory
24 GB
Official spec GDDR6X
Memory bandwidth
1,008 GB/s
Official spec ~80% achieved in practice
Specifications
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Official spec
GPU
GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB (used) Official spec
Memory
24 GB GDDR6X Official spec
Memory bandwidth
1,008 GB/s Official spec source
Achieved bandwidth ⓘ
~80% (806 GB/s) Measured
FP16 compute ⓘ
~165 TFLOPS Official spec
System RAM
64 GB Official spec
Architecture
Discrete GPU with dedicated VRAM Official spec
Nominal power
600 W Official spec
Measured load power
520 W Measured
Idle power
60 W Measured
Released
12 Oct 2022 Official spec
Representative used build. Price is a Marktplaats/eBay-class observation, not a retail price, and used-market prices move fast. Depreciation on an already-depreciated asset is much flatter, which changes the economics substantially.
Standout models on this machine
Fastest
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B — ~237–342 t/s
Q4_K_M · estimated confidence
Largest that fits
Compare against
Related hardware
Model performance on Used RTX 4090 workstation (24 GB)1 measured, 13 estimated
14 of 14 rows
| Model↕ | Quant | Memory↕ | Decode▼ | Prefill↕ | Context | Fit | Confidence↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B NVIDIA · 31.578B (3B active) | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 20.0 GB | ~237–342 t/s | ~3530–7320 t/s | 192K | Borderline | Estimated |
| gpt-oss-20b OpenAI · 20.915B (3.6B active) | MXFP4recommended | 13.0 GB | ~228–329 t/s | ~7910–16430 t/s | 128K | Comfortable | Estimated |
| Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Alibaba Qwen · 30.532B (3.3B active) | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 20.0 GB | ~221–317 t/s | ~3420–7100 t/s | 16K | Borderline | Estimated |
| Qwen3 30B-A3B Alibaba Qwen · 30.532B (3.3B active) | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 20.0 GB | ~221–317 t/s | ~3420–7100 t/s | 16K | Borderline | Estimated |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B Google DeepMind · 25.806B (3.8B active) | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 18.3 GB | ~197–284 t/s | ~3470–7200 t/s | 16K | Fits | Estimated |
| Ternary Bonsai 2 27B Prism ML · 27.36B | PTQ1_0recommended measured: PQ2_0 | 7.2 GB | 91.1 t/s | 1650 t/s | 192K | Comfortable | Low |
| Qwen3 8B Alibaba Qwen · 8.191B | Q8_0recommended | 10.6 GB | ~70.7–102 t/s | ~4190–8700 t/s | 40K | Comfortable | Estimated |
| Phi-4 14B Microsoft · 14.66B | Q5_K_Mrecommended | 12.9 GB | ~59.7–85.9 t/s | ~2340–4860 t/s | 16K | Comfortable | Estimated |
| Devstral Small 24B Mistral AI · 23.572B | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 16.4 GB | ~44.3–63.7 t/s | ~1460–3020 t/s | 32K | Comfortable | Estimated |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B Mistral AI · 24.011B | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 16.6 GB | ~43.5–62.6 t/s | ~1430–2970 t/s | 32K | Comfortable | Estimated |
| Gemma 3 27B Google DeepMind · 27.432B | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 21.3 GB | ~38.3–55.1 t/s | ~1250–2600 t/s | 8K | Borderline | Estimated |
| Qwen3.8 27B Alibaba Qwen · 27.781B | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 18.1 GB | ~37.8–54.4 t/s | ~1240–2570 t/s | 32K | Fits | Estimated |
| Qwen3.6 27B Alibaba Qwen · 27.781B | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 18.1 GB | ~37.8–54.4 t/s | ~1240–2570 t/s | 32K | Fits | Estimated |
| Granite 4.2 30B IBM · 29.277B | Q4_K_Mrecommended | 20.5 GB | ~35.9–51.7 t/s | ~1170–2430 t/s | 8K | Borderline | Estimated |
Rows in grey are estimates from our bandwidth model, not measurements — they are shown as a range and never as a precise figure. Use the “measured only” filter to see just the 1 pairing on this machine that a real benchmark backs.
Submit a benchmarkContributions are reviewed before publication.
Ownership economicsUnited States (federal) · C corporation · 8h/day
Monthly economic cost
$27
Calculated after tax
Codex/Claude Code
$100/mo
≈ $100/mo · local is $73 less
Net cash at purchase
$2,071
Calculated VAT not reclaimable
Total over 5 years
$1,611
Calculated after tax, after resale
Cost per USD/1M tokens
$0.73
Calculated 36.7M tokens/month
The $100 comparison uses the Codex Pro 5x / Claude Max 5x plans. A fixed planning conversion is used for USD. This compares monthly spend only: subscriptions have usage limits, local hardware has different capabilities and constraints, and taxes or regional pricing may change the charged amount. Prices checked 7 September 2026.
Purchase-price input: $2,071 in United States (federal), tax/VAT excluded · estimated · Used market (Marktplaats/eBay) (converted catalogue estimate). This is the localized purchase input; the after-tax economic cost is calculated separately below.
Monthly breakdown
| Depreciation 1,615 over 5 years, straight-line to a 456 residual | $26.92 |
| Electricity 26.8 kWh/month at 0.140/kWh | $3.75 |
| Cost of capital 4.0%/yr on 1,263 average capital employed | $4.21 |
| Monthly cost before tax | $34.88 |
| Electricity tax shield Running costs are deductible business expenses | −$0.79 |
| First-year expensing §179 (100.0%) | −$7.25 |
| Monthly economic cost after tax | $26.84 |
Three different numbers, deliberately
Cash cost
$2,071
Money that leaves the bank account on day one, net of reclaimable VAT.
Accounting depreciation
$26.92/month
$1,615 written down over 5 years to a $456 residual.
After-tax economic cost
$26.84/month
Depreciation plus running costs plus cost of capital, less the tax those deductions save. This is the figure to compare between machines.
Assumptions and sources (verified 2026-09-07)
VAT rate
0% Official spec
VAT recoverable
0% Official spec
Federal C-corporation estimate at the flat 21% rate. Pass-through entities should use the sole-proprietor estimate as a rougher proxy.
Effective deduction rate
21.00% Calculated
Headline marginal rate 21.00%.
Depreciation
5 years, straight-line Assumption
Residual value
$456 (22%) Assumption
Extrapolated.
Electricity
$0.140/kWh Assumption
Average power draw
152 W Calculated
Load 520 W for 20% of powered hours, idle 60 W for the rest — a machine that is on is not generating tokens the whole time.
Investment allowances
§179 100.0% Official spec
Worth $435 in total — first-year expensing that replaces later tax depreciation.
Cost of capital
$4.21/month Assumption
- VAT rate: No US federal VAT · verified 2026-09-07
- Marginal tax rate: IRS Publication 542 — Corporations · verified 2026-09-07
- VAT recoverable fraction: site assumption · verified 2026-09-07
- Useful life: IRS Publication 946 — How To Depreciate Property · verified 2026-09-07
- Electricity price: Site assumption · verified 2026-09-07
Assumes the machine generates tokens 20% of its 176 powered hours per month. Cost per token scales inversely with this number — halve the utilisation and the cost per token doubles.
Federal planning estimate only, not tax advice. State and local income tax, sales/use tax and incentives are excluded. It assumes 100% business use, a Section 179 election, enough business income to use it, and that the full annual limit remains available.