System requirements
What your PC needs to run vamAI, and what more it needs if you want to run some of the AI on your own PC.
vamAI itself is light. If your PC runs Virt‑A‑Mate well, it can run vamAI. The heavier needs only come in if you choose to run some of the AI on your own PC.
What everyone needs
| You need | Details |
|---|---|
| Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit | vamAI is a Windows app. |
| Virt‑A‑Mate 1.19 or newer | vamAI connects to it through the vamAI plugin. VaM and vamAI run on the same PC. |
| Memory (RAM) | 4 GB for vamAI at the minimum, 8 GB recommended, on top of what VaM uses. |
| Disk space | About 1 GB for vamAI. Several GB more if you download services to run on your PC. An SSD helps. |
| An internet connection | For the online AI services, signing in, and downloads. |
| Accounts with AI services | A key for each online service you use. Most need credit or a paid plan on that account; check each service's pricing. See Choosing your AI services. |
| A microphone | To talk out loud. Any working microphone will do; a headset in a quiet room works best. Typing works without one. |
With online services for conversation, voice and listening, you don't need a powerful graphics card for vamAI. VaM itself is the heaviest thing running.
Online or on your PC?
Her voice always comes from an online service (ElevenLabs, Deepgram or Hume). Other parts can run either way:
| Online services | On your PC | |
|---|---|---|
| Which parts | Conversation, voice, listening, portraits | Listening (Whisper), conversation (the local model, or LM Studio / Ollama), lip-sync (Audio2Face) |
| What you need | A key and an internet connection | A capable graphics card and disk space for downloads |
| Load on your PC | Very light | Heavy: your graphics card does the work, alongside VaM |
| Cost | The service bills your account as you use it | Nothing per use |
| Privacy | What you say goes to that service | That part stays on your PC |
You can mix: for example, listening on your PC and everything else online.
Running AI on your PC
| Service | Graphics card |
|---|---|
| Whisper (listening) | Fastest on an NVIDIA card: RTX 20-series or GTX 16-series or newer, with driver 527.41 or later. Without one, it runs on your processor, more slowly. |
| Local model (conversation) | Works with NVIDIA, AMD or Intel graphics, or the processor alone. vamAI downloads the right version for your PC. Bigger models need more graphics memory. |
| Audio2Face (lip-sync) | Needs an NVIDIA card: RTX 20-series or GTX 16-series or newer, with driver 527.41 or later. |
These services share your graphics card's memory with VaM. The meter in the bottom-right corner of vamAI shows how full it is.
They're downloaded from inside vamAI when you first choose them, which needs you to be signed in. Together they can take several gigabytes. See Running AI on your PC.
Next steps
- Ready to go? Download & install.
- Weighing up services? Choosing your AI services.