How GPUs Drive AI Innovation in South Africa

Meet Thandi, the co-founder of a promising AI startup in Cape Town's tech hub. Her team is developing a sophisticated predictive model for the agricultural sector, but they hit a wall. Training their model on cloud platforms was becoming incredibly expensive, with costs soaring and project timelines stretching thin due to slow processing. They needed a powerful, in-house solution to accelerate their research and development without breaking their seed-round budget.

Our Solution & Implementation

The challenge was clear: find a hardware solution that offered maximum AI performance, stability, and enough VRAM to handle their massive datasets. Moving their workload from the cloud to a dedicated in-house machine would slash their operational expenses and give them full control.

The team first evaluated next-generation consumer GPUs, weighing the raw power of flagship cards like the anticipated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 against other upcoming options. While consumer cards, including potential future releases like an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, offer incredible performance for gaming and general creative work, Thandi's specific workload had different priorities.

After consulting with Evetech, the optimal path was a GPU built for professional AI applications. The final choice was a high-VRAM model from Evetech's range of workstation graphics cards. These cards are engineered for stability under sustained 24/7 loads and feature certified drivers that are highly optimised for AI frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch. The larger VRAM capacity was the deciding factor, allowing them to work with more complex models without hitting memory bottlenecks.

SAPPHIRE PULSE AMD RADEON™ RX 9070 XT Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6 / 4096 Stream Processors / 256-bit Memory Interface / Boost Clock : 2970 MHz / AMD RDNA™ 4 Architecture / 64 Ray Accelerators / 11348-03-20G

R15499.00In Stock

Palit GeForce RTX 5060 Dual 8GB Graphics Card / 8GB GDDR7 / 3840 Cuda Cores / 128-bit Memory Interface / Boost Clock : 2497 MHz / PCI Express® Gen 5 / NE75060019P1-GB2063D

R6899.00In Stock

MSI GeForce RTX 5070 12G Inspire 3X OC Graphics Card / 12GB GDDR7 / 6144 Cuda Cores / 192-bit Memory Interface / Boost Clock : 2542 MHz / NVIDIA Blackwell & DLSS 4 / 28Gbps Memory Speed / PCI Express® Gen 5 / 912-V532-017

R16599.00In Stock

LEADTEK NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwel 96GB GDDR7 GPU / Compatible with RTX PRO Sync / GDDR7 Memory with ECC / 126W0000100

R191999.00In Stock

MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8G VENTUS 2X OC Plus Graphics Card / 4608 Cuda Cores / 8GB GDDR7 / 128-Bit Memory Bus / 2602MHz Boost Core Clocks / 912-V536-024

R10299.00In Stock

XFX Quicksilver AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Graphics Card / 4096 Stream Processors / 256-bit Memory Interface / Boost Clock : 2970 MHz / AMD RDNA™ 4 Architecture / RX-97TQICKB9

R16999.00In Stock

Implementation Steps:

1. System Build: Evetech configured a purpose-built workstation around the new professional GPU.
2. Software Environment: The system was set up with a Linux distribution, CUDA drivers, and all the necessary AI libraries.
3. Data Migration: The team migrated their datasets from the cloud to the new local machine. 🚀

The Results: A Game-Changer for R&D

The switch to a dedicated, in-house AI workstation had a massive and immediate impact. The team was no longer at the mercy of cloud availability or escalating costs. They could iterate on their models faster, run more experiments, and ultimately accelerate their path to a market-ready product. The workstation paid for itself in just a few months through cloud savings alone.

Here’s a snapshot of the before-and-after:

“Bringing our AI workload in-house with the right workstation GPU didn't just save us a fortune in cloud fees; it gave us our time back. We can now innovate at the speed of our ideas, not at the speed of our internet connection.” – Thandi, Co-Founder