It's about how much machine learning you're currently doing and how much you expect to spend. E.g. if you play around for a little bit, you could end up spend

It's about how much machine learning you're currently doing and how much you expect to spend. E.g. if you play around for a little bit, you could end up spending $50 on the cloud. By contrast, a card will set you back $350+. If you're doing lots of machine learning, the cloud will quickly rack up. There's other factors. E.g. the cloud's performance can vary depending on the time of day (and whose using the application). Don't buy a graphics card unless you're certain you're going to do lots of ML. Or buy one if you think that'll motivate you to do justify the purchase by doing lots of ML.