Epoch AI finds a $2,500 consumer gaming GPU (RTX 5090) can now run open models matching frontier AI performance from 6 to 12 months earlier, with the lag ranging from 6.3 months on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index to 12.4 months on LM Arena Elo

Epoch AI reports that a high-end consumer gaming GPU, such as the NVIDIA RTX 5090, can run open models that achieve performance levels comparable to frontier AI models from 6 to 12 months prior. This lag was measured across various benchmarks, including 6.3 months on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index and 12.4 months on LM Arena Elo. The analysis considered models that fit entirely on the GPU's VRAM with 4-bit quantization.