r/StableDiffusion • u/_NavIArt_ • 9h ago
Question - Help My First AI PC
Hi everyone, I have a question: I'm thinking of buying my first PC solely for AI. What minimum components do you recommend for running Stable Diffusion with Illustrious models? I've been using Free Google Colab to create images in Automatic1111 so I was thinking of buying a PC with similar specifications. What do you recommend?
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u/SpaceNinjaDino 8h ago
If you want to do video, I wouldn't recommend anything less than a 5070 Ti/5080 with 16GB VRAM and 64GB RAM.
If you are doing images, 5070 and 32GB is a decent setup.
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u/redkinoko 5h ago
Man I can't imagine buying a rig with 5080 as a hobby machine.
The only reason I could get one was I was already monetized and knew I could make it back.
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u/wiisucks_91 8h ago
8core CPU ryzen 5800x or Intel equivalent 64gb DDR4/DDR5 ram 2tb storage nvme 5060ti 16gb - 5090 32gb
That should run anything.
I have an AI PC that I built last year from eBay scrap...$300
Added storage and RTX 5060ti 16gb
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u/MysteriousPepper8908 9h ago
I never used Illustrious specifically but I did run a variety of image models with a 6GB 2060 and 8GB of RAM. That's probably about the floor for image generation and isn't going to get you very far for video but it should suffice if you don't need high speeds or real high resolution
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u/Jealous_Piece_1703 8h ago
For illustrious? The minimum I would say is 3060 GPU or similar power. But thats the minimum I would not recommend anything under 12GB vram. Also this is for Illustrious AKA SDXL. Anima have similar requirements. When it comes to larger model. Yeah it is different.
Personally I think if you want to keep the budget relatively low. Go with RTX 5070ti.
For rams try to get 32gb ram. 16gb is rough. Also don’t forget at least 1TB M.2 nvme SSD.
The cpu is free, choose what ever modern and cheap one. Doesn’t matter much for AI.
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u/Least_Tumbleweed_599 8h ago
I run Illustrious with Forge, it takes very little to run. Even a 5060 will run it fine. Though as some others have noted, you'll likely want more for other uses. Be it gaming, or preparing to run future models in the future.
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u/FearFactory2904 8h ago edited 7h ago
Get some clapped out 10 year old PC that has pcie and a high wattage psu. The cheaper the better so you can invest more in GPU(s)
Spend the rest of the funds on however many 5090s you can fit in there. Or if on a budget get 5070 ti or 3090, on a tighter budget 5060 ti 16gb.
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u/Southern-Chain-6485 7h ago
At this point, I'd let go of illustrious and, for anime, stick to Anima.
As for the PC, it depends on your budget. Your first constrain is vram. The second one is that, afaik, nvidia is still lots faster and has more optimization than amd (let alone intel) gpus. So you're looking at an nvidia gpu with 12gb of vram or more (depending on your budget. Some people run on 8gb vram), no less than 16gb of system ram (I'd say no less than 32gb if you can budget it), at least 1tb of ssd nvme (though you should probably aim at at least 2tb, you'll fill it fast), a gpu that can run that and a cpu that won't bottleneck the system. And, of course, a good psu for that sytem (and with headroom if you want to expand it down the line, depending on your budget). Depending on your budget, you may also look for motherboards with at least two pci-e slots in case you want to add a second gpu down the line and more than 1 m2 slot in case you want to add additional m2 drives down the line.
So, it all depends on how much money you are willing and capable of spending. You could build something with a used RTX 3060, a Ryzen 3 or i3 cpu, 16gb ddr4 of system ram and a 512 sata ssd and you'll be able to generate images with anima. I wouldn't bother with less than that. Upwards from there, as much as you can spend.
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u/rguerraf 7h ago
For sdxl, the minimum is ryzen 6850 with 24gb ram (680m GPU is integrated). Add a NVME with pcie 5.0.
What are these “similar specifications” that you have in mind?
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u/Ok_Tale7582 7h ago
minimun a 12gb nvidia gpu, 512gb nvme and 32gb ram, and that's it you can generate with int8/int4, just be careful of not opening many programs or tabs in the same browser you're using Automatic1111 or comfyui depending of the image model
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u/DelinquentTuna 6h ago
I believe free Colab means a 16GB t4 (Pascal or rtx 2xxx gen) plus ~12GB of RAM allocated. If you're buying new today, something like this is probably the closest match you can find on shelves. 16GB system RAM, 16GB Nvidia GPU, adequate CPU. It's strictly entry level, but it should be able to just barely handle everything the free Colab could. The GPU is a little stronger but the RAM situation is probably a bit tighter (assuming you run some OS with a GUI).
The machine won't be setting any speed records, but it puts you in the game quite nicely. Guessing from the image alone, the motherboard only has two RAM slots and both are already populated. So if you decide to get into video, you can REPLACE those with 2x16MB or 2x32MB for somewhere between $400-$1200 and actually be in a pretty good place. 16GB GPU plus 32-64GB of system RAM is a squarely middle of the road setup right now and can handle most of the stuff you see people showing off in this forum. The 5060ti won't be setting any speed records, but it will be able to do everything the 5080 can do.
If you choose to buy a different machine, be sure to check the specs instead of just the name. It's so confusing, but you'll find 5060 GPUs of the same name w/ only 8GB RAM and so forth. And in a system w/ 16GB of system RAM, the adverts will frequently just say "16GB RAM" in such a way that leaves it ambiguous. Be careful, gl.
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u/ANR2ME 6h ago edited 6h ago
Free Colab is using T4 GPU which is a slow GPU for diffusion models (may be around RTX 2060 performance but with larger VRAM).
Illustrious model is based on SDXL, which is pretty lightweight (you can probably run it on CPU too using FastSDCPU)
But it's better to get a GPU with at least 16 GB VRAM (Nvidia is still the recommended brand for diffusion models, especially for beginners), and at least 32GB RAM, so you can also generate videos.
1
u/UsernameOutlaw 4h ago
I don’t know what that Google Colab machine would have in it, but there is a possibility it could be more than what a normal person would use.
If you only want to be able to generate with illustrious locally, an 8gb 2060 gpu should do the trick. Might be a tad slow, but it’s what I started out with and it worked well for me until I upgraded.
But if you want to explore some larger model architectures or be a bit more comfortable I would suggest a 12-16gb Nvidia card plus a decent amount of system ram.
If you have money and want to just go for it, any 24gb Nvidia card can do a lot with quite a few models.
The main thing you need to consider though, is system ram is also quite an important factor as well depending on what all you decide to do.
AMD might be enticing right now, but trust me when I say, it can be a much bigger pain in the butt than you necessarily want.
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u/petranova_ 8h ago
GPU is the only thing that really matters here. A 3060 12GB runs Illustrious fine locally, and the 12GB VRAM is the number to hit, the 8GB version of the same card will bottleneck you fast on those models. Everything else, RAM and CPU, is pretty forgiving.
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u/liebebio 9h ago
running... stable diffusion? It all depends on your budget. right now you basically need everything, storage, ram, vram, CPU (yes) ... you seem like more a beginner and not interested in video models. man this is not the right time to buy a PC. everything is very expensive.