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SmolLM3 3B needs ~4.7 GB VRAM. RTX 3050 Ti Laptop 4GB has 4.0 GB. With Q2_K quantization, expect ~42 tok/s.
Operating mode
Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
Select quantization to explore
1.4 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
35.3 tok/s
TTFT
5483 ms
Safe context
5K
Memory
5.4 GB / 4.0 GB
Offload
30%
It fits through host-memory offload, and offload is the main reason performance drops.
CPU or host-memory offload is active
About 20% of the working set spills out of accelerator memory, which usually hurts latency and sustained decode throughput.
Very little memory headroom
You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.
Remove offload with more accelerator memory
Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.
Buy headroom, not only minimum fit
A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.
Increase host RAM if you keep offloading
This setup may need roughly 0.2 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | C | Very compromised (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM) | 42.0 tok/s | 2514 ms | 5K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 32.8 tok/s | 5894 ms | 5K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 18.4 tok/s | 15300 ms | 5K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 35.3 tok/s | 6479 ms | 5K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 18.4 tok/s | 19126 ms | 5K |
How SmolLM3 3B (3B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3050 Ti Laptop 4GB (4.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 1.2 GB | Low | B63 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 1.5 GB | Low | B63 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run SmolLM3 3B on your machine.
Run
lms load SmolLM3-3B && lms server startUpgrade options
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$229 MSRP
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$249 MSRP
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$249 MSRP
| Medium |
| B63 |
Q4_K_MBest for your GPU | 4 | 1.8 GB | Medium | B63 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 2.2 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 2.5 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 3.2 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 6.1 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Remove offload with more accelerator memory. Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.
