Payback

US prices, Sep 2026. Power is 18.34¢/kWh, EIA June 2026. ROI/yr is at 20% duty. Color is a log scale. A stronger wash is an outlier.

Setup	Decode	US $	5%	20%	70%	ROI/yr
2× Dual · Qwen3.8-Flash-Next	45	$9,998	309 yr	77 yr	22 yr	1.3%
1× Solo · DGX Spark	—	$4,999	—	No decode	—	—
3× Triple · DGX Spark	—	$14,997	—	No decode	—	—
4× Quad · DGX Spark	—	$19,996	—	No decode	—	—
6× 6+ · DGX Spark	—	$29,994	—	No decode	—	—

Setup	Decode	US $	5%	20%	70%	ROI/yr
Qwen3.5 2B · RTX 5090 32GB	351	$4,639	9.1 yr	2.3 yr	7.8 mo	44%
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B · M4 Pro	85.5	$2,199	17 yr	4.2 yr	14 mo	24%
Qwen3.5-4B · M4 Pro	82.8	$2,199	17 yr	4.3 yr	15 mo	23%
Gemma-4 26B-A4B-it · RTX 5090 32GB	173	$4,639	20 yr	5.1 yr	18 mo	20%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next · M5 Max	126.5	$5,399	28 yr	7.0 yr	24 mo	14%
Qwen3.8-27B · RTX 5060 Ti 16GB	23	$614	28 yr	7.0 yr	2.0 yr	14%
Qwen3.5-9B · M4 Pro	49.3	$2,199	30 yr	7.4 yr	2.1 yr	13%
Qwen3-8B · M4 Pro	48.3	$2,199	30 yr	7.6 yr	2.2 yr	13%
Qwen3.8-27B · RTX 5060 Ti 16GB	19	$614	40 yr	9.9 yr	2.8 yr	10%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next · DGX Spark	79.5	$4,999	47 yr	12 yr	3.4 yr	8.5%
AliceAI-Foundation-80B-A3B · M5 Max 128GB	65	$5,399	56 yr	14 yr	4.0 yr	7.2%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next · RTX 5090 32GB	80.9	$4,639	57 yr	14 yr	4.1 yr	7.0%
Nex-N2.5-mini · RTX 5060 Ti 16GB	14	$614	81 yr	20 yr	5.8 yr	5.0%
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B · 2× DGX Spark	94.4	$9,998	91 yr	23 yr	6.5 yr	4.4%
Qwen3.8-27B · RTX 4090 24GB	40.7	$4,495	160 yr	40 yr	11 yr	2.5%
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next · 2× DGX Spark	45	$9,998	309 yr	77 yr	22 yr	1.3%
Qwen3.8-27B TurboFCFusion · RTX 5060 Ti 16GB	10	$614	469 yr	117 yr	34 yr	0.9%
Empero Qwen3.8-35B-A3B · RTX 3060 12GB	50	—	—	No US price	—	—
Ornith · GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB	40	—	—	No US price	—	—
MiMo-V2.6-Distill-Qwen-9B · RTX 5060 8GB	47	—	—	No US price	—	—