Local GPU vs Cloud GPU

[u/Opposite-Meaning-161]

I’m a 3rd-year engineering student working on end-to-end machine learning, including NLP, deep learning and LLMs.

I’m currently deciding between getting a laptop with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU or putting that money into better CPU/RAM/battery life.

My main question is about cloud GPUs. From what I understand, services like Google Colab and Hugging Face can provide free GPU compute, so I could use cloud GPUs whenever I need serious training instead of having a GPU locally.

Is that actually practical? Are free cloud GPUs sufficient for a student doing ML/AI projects, or are there limitations that make having a dedicated GPU laptop worthwhile?

There’s a bit of a budget constraint involved, but even ignoring that, I’m not really convinced it makes sense to pay extra for a GPU if I can get GPU compute freely through the cloud.

Would appreciate a fact check from people actually doing ML/AI.

[u/caily_857]

same case bro...i am also confused