Your rig

CPU only · DDR5 8-channel server · 256 GB

DDR5-4800 ×8 · 307 GB/s · 204.8 GB usable of 256 GB system RAM
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Context length

KV cache at f16, 4K tokens

Quality floor
Q8_0 — near-lossless Q6_K Q5_K_M Q4_K_M — recommended Q3_K_M Q2_K — damaged
KV cache type
Runtime
Ollamallama.cppLM Studio

3 of 5 runtimes drive this device.

Allow CPU offload Include partial-offload fits

Offloaded layers run at 60 GB/s host bandwidth — expect single-digit tokens per second.

Which one should I actually run?

Best models for your CPU only · DDR5 8-channel server

Updated 21 Aug 2026 5 new this week, 14 this month

What do you want to do? Each row is the best-ranked model on that use case's shortlist that fits at Q2_K and 4K. The ordering is editorial; the sizes and speeds are computed. How the shortlists work.

RecommendationModelWhyQuant · totalTok/s est.
Best overall DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B-A13B New
DeepSeek · MIT
Frontier-adjacent at 13B active; the largest model a 128–192 GB machine runs at a useful speed. Q2_K · 111.5 GB 11 Runs great
Best for coding DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B-A13B New
DeepSeek · MIT
Frontier coding at 13B active for 128 GB+ machines. Q2_K · 111.5 GB 11 Runs great
Best reasoning DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B-A13B New
DeepSeek · MIT
Most of V4 Pro's reasoning at 13B active. Q2_K · 111.5 GB 11 Runs great
Best for writing Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
Meta · Llama 3.3 Community
The creative-writing favourite: consistent voice, takes direction, handles fiction framing. Q2_K · 29.4 GB 4.7 Runs great
Best vision Qwen3.8 27B New this week
Alibaba · Apache 2.0
Image and video in, OSWorld 84 — the strongest local vision-language model at 24 GB. Q2_K · 11.7 GB 12 Runs great
Best for agents DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B-A13B New
DeepSeek · MIT
Long agent trajectories at 13B active. Q2_K · 111.5 GB 11 Runs great
Best translation Qwen3.8 27B New this week
Alibaba · Apache 2.0
119 languages, and Qwen translations read as idiomatic rather than literal. Q2_K · 11.7 GB 12 Runs great
Fastest good model Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Alibaba · Apache 2.0
3.3B active per token: the fastest model that still competes with dense 27Bs. Q2_K · 14.7 GB 44 Runs great
Best long context DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B-A13B New
DeepSeek · MIT
A 1M-token window with a compressed latent cache. Q2_K · 117.4 GB
at 128K context
11 Runs great

Everything that fits

Runs great

70 of 76 · fits with headroom for a longer prompt
ModelParamsQuantWeights +KV 4KTotal VRAM headroom Tok/sRuntime
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 403B MoE / 17B act Q2_K 157.2 GB 0.12 GB 157.9 GB
46.9 GB free
8.6 llama.cpp Run
Ornith 1.5 397B-A17B New this week 397B MoE / 17B act Q2_K 154.8 GB 0.12 GB 155.5 GB
49.3 GB free
8.6 llama.cpp Run
DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B-A13B New 284B MoE / 13B act Q2_K 110.8 GB 0.19 GB 111.5 GB
93.3 GB free
11 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 235B-A22B 235B MoE / 22B act Q2_K 91.6 GB 0.73 GB 93.0 GB
111.8 GB free
6.7 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.5 122B-A10B 125B MoE / 10B act Q2_K 48.7 GB 0.09 GB 49.4 GB
155.4 GB free
15 llama.cpp Run
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B 124B MoE / 12B act Q2_K 48.4 GB 0.03 GB 49.0 GB
155.8 GB free
12 llama.cpp Run
Ling 3.0 Flash 124B-A5B New 124B MoE / 5.1B act Q2_K 48.4 GB 0.03 GB 49.0 GB
155.8 GB free
29 llama.cpp Run
Mistral Small 4 119B-A6B 119B MoE / 6.5B act Q2_K 46.4 GB 0.09 GB 47.1 GB
157.7 GB free
23 llama.cpp Run
gpt-oss 120B 117B MoE / 5.1B act MXFP4 60.5 GB 0.15 GB 61.3 GB
143.5 GB free
22 llama.cpp Run
Llama 4 Scout 109B-A17B 109B MoE / 17B act Q2_K 42.5 GB 0.75 GB 43.9 GB
160.9 GB free
8.6 llama.cpp Run
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct 70.6B Q2_K 27.5 GB 1.25 GB 29.4 GB
175.4 GB free
4.7 llama.cpp Run
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama 70B 70.6B Q2_K 27.5 GB 1.25 GB 29.4 GB
175.4 GB free
4.7 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 35.9B MoE / 3.3B act Q2_K 14.0 GB 0.08 GB 14.7 GB
190.1 GB free
44 llama.cpp Run
Ornith 1.5 35B-A3B New this week 35.9B MoE / 3.3B act Q2_K 14.0 GB 0.08 GB 14.7 GB
190.1 GB free
44 llama.cpp Run
LLM-jp 4 33B Thinking New this week 33.2B Q2_K 12.9 GB 1.00 GB 14.5 GB
190.3 GB free
9.9 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 32B 32.8B Q2_K 12.8 GB 1.00 GB 14.4 GB
190.4 GB free
10 llama.cpp Run
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen 32B 32.8B Q2_K 12.8 GB 1.00 GB 14.4 GB
190.4 GB free
10 llama.cpp Run
Qwen2.5-Coder 32B 32.8B Q2_K 12.8 GB 1.00 GB 14.4 GB
190.4 GB free
10 llama.cpp Run
Olmo 3.1 32B Instruct 32.2B Q2_K 12.6 GB 1.00 GB 14.2 GB
190.6 GB free
10 llama.cpp Run
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B New 31.6B MoE / 3.2B act Q2_K 12.3 GB 0.02 GB 12.9 GB
191.9 GB free
46 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 4 31B 31.3B Q2_K 12.2 GB 1.41 GB 14.2 GB
190.6 GB free
11 llama.cpp Run
GLM-4.7-Flash 30B-A3B 31.2B MoE / 3B act Q2_K 12.2 GB 0.21 GB 13.0 GB
191.8 GB free
49 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 30B-A3B 30.5B MoE / 3.3B act Q2_K 11.9 GB 0.38 GB 12.9 GB
191.9 GB free
44 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B 30.5B MoE / 3.3B act Q2_K 11.9 GB 0.38 GB 12.9 GB
191.9 GB free
44 llama.cpp Run
Muse Glimmer 30B New 29.8B Q2_K 11.6 GB 0.13 GB 12.3 GB
192.5 GB free
11 llama.cpp Run
Granite 4.1 30B 28.9B Q2_K 11.3 GB 1.00 GB 12.9 GB
191.9 GB free
11 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.8 27B New this week 27.8B Q2_K 10.8 GB 0.25 GB 11.7 GB
193.1 GB free
12 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.6 27B 27.8B Q2_K 10.8 GB 0.25 GB 11.7 GB
193.1 GB free
12 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 3 27B 27.4B Q2_K 10.7 GB 0.72 GB 12.0 GB
192.8 GB free
12 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 4 26B-A4B 26.5B MoE / 3.8B act Q2_K 10.3 GB 0.35 GB 11.3 GB
193.5 GB free
39 llama.cpp Run
Devstral Small 2 24B 24B Q2_K 9.4 GB 0.63 GB 10.6 GB
194.2 GB free
14 llama.cpp Run
Mistral Small 3.2 24B 23.6B Q2_K 9.2 GB 0.63 GB 10.4 GB
194.4 GB free
14 llama.cpp Run
gpt-oss 20B 20.9B MoE / 3.6B act MXFP4 10.8 GB 0.10 GB 11.5 GB
193.3 GB free
31 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 14B 14.8B Q2_K 5.8 GB 0.63 GB 7.0 GB
197.8 GB free
22 llama.cpp Run
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen 14B 14.8B Q2_K 5.8 GB 0.75 GB 7.1 GB
197.7 GB free
22 llama.cpp Run
Qwen2.5-Coder 14B 14.8B Q2_K 5.8 GB 0.75 GB 7.1 GB
197.7 GB free
22 llama.cpp Run
Phi-4 14B 14.7B Q2_K 5.7 GB 0.78 GB 7.1 GB
197.7 GB free
22 llama.cpp Run
Ministral 3 14B 13.9B Q2_K 5.4 GB 0.63 GB 6.6 GB
198.2 GB free
24 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 3 12B 12.2B Q2_K 4.8 GB 0.56 GB 5.9 GB
198.9 GB free
27 llama.cpp Run
Mistral NeMo 12B 12.2B Q2_K 4.8 GB 0.63 GB 6.0 GB
198.8 GB free
27 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 4 12B 12B Q2_K 4.7 GB 0.56 GB 5.8 GB
199.0 GB free
27 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.5 9B 9.65B Q2_K 3.8 GB 0.13 GB 4.5 GB
200.3 GB free
34 llama.cpp Run
Ornith 1.5 9B New this week 9.41B Q2_K 3.7 GB 0.13 GB 4.4 GB
200.4 GB free
35 llama.cpp Run
Ministral 3 8B 8.92B Q2_K 3.5 GB 0.53 GB 4.6 GB
200.2 GB free
37 llama.cpp Run
Granite 4.1 8B 8.79B Q2_K 3.4 GB 0.63 GB 4.7 GB
200.1 GB free
38 llama.cpp Run
LFM2.5 8B-A1B 8.47B MoE / 1.5B act Q2_K 3.3 GB 0.05 GB 4.0 GB
200.8 GB free
98 llama.cpp Run
Fara 7B 8.29B Q2_K 3.2 GB 0.22 GB 4.1 GB
200.7 GB free
40 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 8B 8.19B Q2_K 3.2 GB 0.56 GB 4.4 GB
200.4 GB free
40 llama.cpp Run
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 8.03B Q2_K 3.1 GB 0.50 GB 4.2 GB
200.6 GB free
41 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 4 E4B 8.0B Q2_K 3.1 GB 0.09 GB 3.8 GB
201.0 GB free
41 llama.cpp Run
Ling 3.0 Tiny 7.9B-A1.3B New 7.9B MoE / 1.3B act Q2_K 3.1 GB 0.03 GB 3.7 GB
201.1 GB free
113 llama.cpp Run
DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen 7B 7.62B Q2_K 3.0 GB 0.22 GB 3.8 GB
201.0 GB free
43 llama.cpp Run
Qwen2.5-Coder 7B 7.62B Q2_K 3.0 GB 0.22 GB 3.8 GB
201.0 GB free
43 llama.cpp Run
Olmo 3 7B Instruct 7.3B Q2_K 2.8 GB 2.00 GB 5.4 GB
199.4 GB free
45 llama.cpp Run
Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 7.25B Q2_K 2.8 GB 0.50 GB 3.9 GB
200.9 GB free
46 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 4 E2B 5.1B Q2_K 2.0 GB 0.04 GB 2.6 GB
202.2 GB free
65 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.5 4B 4.66B Q2_K 1.8 GB 0.13 GB 2.5 GB
202.3 GB free
71 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 3 4B 4.3B Q2_K 1.7 GB 0.20 GB 2.5 GB
202.3 GB free
77 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 4B 4.02B Q2_K 1.6 GB 0.56 GB 2.7 GB
202.1 GB free
82 llama.cpp Run
Ministral 3 3B 3.85B Q2_K 1.5 GB 0.41 GB 2.5 GB
202.3 GB free
86 llama.cpp Run
Phi-4-mini 3.8B 3.84B Q2_K 1.5 GB 0.50 GB 2.6 GB
202.2 GB free
86 llama.cpp Run
Granite 4.1 3B 3.4B Q2_K 1.3 GB 0.31 GB 2.2 GB
202.6 GB free
97 llama.cpp Run
Llama 3.2 3B Instruct 3.21B Q2_K 1.3 GB 0.44 GB 2.3 GB
202.5 GB free
103 llama.cpp Run
LFM2.5 2.6B New 2.7B Q2_K 1.1 GB 0.06 GB 1.7 GB
203.1 GB free
122 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.5 2B 2.27B Q2_K 0.9 GB 0.05 GB 1.5 GB
203.3 GB free
145 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 1.7B 1.72B Q2_K 0.7 GB 0.44 GB 1.7 GB
203.1 GB free
192 llama.cpp Run
Llama 3.2 1B Instruct 1.24B Q2_K 0.5 GB 0.13 GB 1.2 GB
203.6 GB free
266 llama.cpp Run
Gemma 3 1B 1.0B Q2_K 0.4 GB 0.03 GB 1.0 GB
203.8 GB free
330 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3.5 0.8B 0.87B Q2_K 0.3 GB 0.05 GB 1.0 GB
203.8 GB free
379 llama.cpp Run
Qwen3 0.6B 0.6B Q2_K 0.2 GB 0.44 GB 1.3 GB
203.5 GB free
550 llama.cpp Run

Won't fit in VRAM

6 models · some are possible with CPU offload
ModelParamsQuantWeights +KV 4KTotal Over budget Tok/sRuntime
Kimi K3 2.8T-A104B New 2780B MoE / 104B act Q2_K 1084.2 GB 0.11 GB 1084.9 GB +880.1 GB ~1.4 llama.cpp Why
Qwen3.8 2.4T-A95B New 2446B MoE / 95B act Q2_K 953.9 GB 0.36 GB 954.9 GB +750.1 GB ~1.5 llama.cpp Why
DeepSeek V4 Pro 1.6T-A49B New 1650B MoE / 49B act Q2_K 643.5 GB 0.27 GB 644.4 GB +439.6 GB ~3.0 llama.cpp Why
Kimi K2.6 1T-A32B 1027B MoE / 32B act Q2_K 400.5 GB 0.27 GB 401.4 GB +196.6 GB ~4.6 llama.cpp Why
GLM-5.2 744B-A40B 753B MoE / 40B act Q2_K 293.7 GB 0.34 GB 294.6 GB +89.8 GB ~3.7 llama.cpp Why
DeepSeek-R1 671B 671B MoE / 37B act Q2_K 261.7 GB 0.27 GB 262.6 GB +57.8 GB ~4.0 llama.cpp Why

Totals = quantised weights + f16 KV cache at 4K tokens + 0.6 GB runtime overhead, against 204.8 GB usable system RAM. Tokens per second are estimated from 307 GB/s peak memory bandwidth at batch 1 — not measured. Read the method.