Newbies who wanna generate images for free on their own PC, don’t let all those hardware flex posts scare you off the moment you step into the forum. You don’t need a 4090 to get started. I’ve seen plenty of people running SD1.5 with Forge on an old 1660 or even integrated graphics—generating 512 images is slow, sure, but it totally works.
There are tons of free options too: local setup costs nothing, and you can grab models from public sources. What really drives people away isn’t the hardware—it’s the mountain of errors when you first set up the environment. My advice: start with an all-in-one pack, get the workflow running, feel the joy of generating images, and then slowly figure out how to optimize.
Once you actually know what kind of images you wanna make often, then think about upgrading your gear. Getting it running first is what matters most.