Hardware requirements

What hardware do I need to run Qwen3 235B-A22B?

235B MoE · 22B active 128K context Apache 2.0

At Q4_K_M the weights are 132.1 GB; with an 8K KV cache and runtime overhead that is 134.2 GB, so it wants a 192 GB card to run with headroom — in practice 192 GB VRAM: Instinct MI300X. Every figure below is computed from the model’s published shape against each device’s usable memory; tokens per second are estimates. The method.

Minimum practical 141 GB VRAM

H200 SXM — Q4_K_M, 134.2 GB of 139.4 GB, ~90 tok/s, up to 36K context.

the smallest card that holds it at all, at Q3_K_M — the lowest quantisation worth running
Recommended 192 GB VRAM

Instinct MI300X — Q4_K_M, 134.2 GB of 190.4 GB, ~100 tok/s, up to 128K context.

runs the recommended quantisation with headroom at 8K context
High quality Nothing in the catalogue

No single device we list clears this bar — this is a multi-GPU or server-class model.

Long context 192 GB VRAM

Instinct MI300X — Q4_K_M, 156.2 GB of 190.4 GB, ~100 tok/s at 128K.

128K tokens (or the model’s maximum) at the recommended quantisation
Apple Silicon 256 GB unified

M3 Ultra · 256 GB — Q4_K_M, 134.2 GB of 192.0 GB, ~17 tok/s, up to 128K context.

smallest Mac that runs the recommended quantisation with headroom
CPU only 256 GB RAM

CPU only · DDR5 8-channel server — Q6_K, 181.5 GB of 204.8 GB, ~3.4 tok/s, up to 128K context.

no GPU — weights stream from system RAM

How much VRAM at each quantisation

QuantWeights+KV 8K+KV 32K+KV 128KTotal @ 8KNeedsQuality
Q8_0232.5 GB1.47 GB5.88 GB23.5 GB 234.6 GBno single card−0.1% ppl
Q6_K179.5 GB1.47 GB5.88 GB23.5 GB 181.5 GBno single card−0.4% ppl
Q5_K_M155.1 GB1.47 GB5.88 GB23.5 GB 157.2 GB192 GB card−0.8% ppl
Q4_K_M132.1 GB1.47 GB5.88 GB23.5 GB 134.2 GB192 GB card−1.9% ppl
Q3_K_M107.0 GB1.47 GB5.88 GB23.5 GB 109.0 GB141 GB card−5.4% ppl
Q2_K91.6 GB1.47 GB5.88 GB23.5 GB 93.7 GB141 GB card−15% ppl

Totals add 0.6 GB runtime overhead and an f16 KV cache; "needs" is the smallest discrete card class whose usable memory (after display and driver reserve) leaves 15% headroom. A q8_0 cache roughly halves the KV columns.

Every device, checked

System RAM for offload:
163264128256

NVIDIA · GeForce

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
GeForce RTX 5090 32 GB — offload — ~1.9 no Check
GeForce RTX 5080 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB 16 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check
GeForce RTX 4080 Super 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB 16 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB — offload — ~1.4 no Check
GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB — offload — ~1.4 no Check
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check
GeForce RTX 3090 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check

NVIDIA · GeForce laptop

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check
GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop 8 GB — offload — ~1.4 no Check

NVIDIA · Workstation

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
RTX 6000 Ada 48 GB — offload — ~2.3 no Check
RTX 5000 Ada 32 GB — offload — ~1.8 no Check
RTX 4000 Ada 20 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
RTX 2000 Ada 16 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
RTX A6000 48 GB — offload — ~2.3 no Check
RTX A5000 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check
RTX A4000 16 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check

NVIDIA · Data centre

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
L40S 48 GB — offload — ~2.3 no Check
L4 24 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
A10 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check
A100 40 GB 40 GB — offload — ~2.1 no Check
A100 80 GB 80 GB — offload — ~4.5 no Check
H100 PCIe 80 GB — offload — ~4.5 no Check
H100 SXM 80 GB — offload — ~4.7 no Check
H200 SXM 141 GB Q3_K_M Q4_K_M 36K 90 no Check
Tesla P40 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check

AMD · Radeon

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Radeon RX 9070 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB — offload — ~1.7 no Check
Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Radeon RX 7700 XT 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
Radeon RX 6900 XT 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check

AMD · Radeon Pro

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
Radeon Pro W7900 48 GB — offload — ~2.3 no Check
Radeon Pro W7800 32 GB — offload — ~1.8 no Check

AMD · Instinct

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
Instinct MI210 64 GB — offload — ~3.1 no Check
Instinct MI300X 192 GB Q5_K_M Q6_K 128K 100 yes Check

AMD · Ryzen AI Max

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
Ryzen AI Max+ 395 · 128 GB 128 GB — no — — no Check
Ryzen AI Max+ 395 · 64 GB 64 GB — no — — no Check

Apple · Apple Silicon

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
M1 · 16 GB 16 GB — no — — no Check
M1 Pro · 32 GB 32 GB — no — — no Check
M1 Max · 64 GB 64 GB — no — — no Check
M1 Ultra · 128 GB 128 GB — no — — no Check
M2 · 24 GB 24 GB — no — — no Check
M2 Pro · 32 GB 32 GB — no — — no Check
M2 Max · 96 GB 96 GB — no — — no Check
M2 Ultra · 192 GB 192 GB Q3_K_M Q4_K_M 61K 17 no Check
M3 · 24 GB 24 GB — no — — no Check
M3 Pro · 36 GB 36 GB — no — — no Check
M3 Max · 64 GB 64 GB — no — — no Check
M3 Max · 128 GB 128 GB — no — — no Check
M3 Ultra · 256 GB 256 GB Q5_K_M Q6_K 128K 17 yes Check
M3 Ultra · 512 GB 512 GB Q8_0 Q8_0 128K 17 yes Check
M4 · 32 GB 32 GB — no — — no Check
M4 Pro · 48 GB 48 GB — no — — no Check
M4 Pro · 64 GB 64 GB — no — — no Check
M4 Max · 64 GB 64 GB — no — — no Check
M4 Max · 128 GB 128 GB — no — — no Check

Intel · Arc

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
Arc B580 12 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
Arc B570 10 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check
Arc A770 16 GB 16 GB — offload — ~1.6 no Check
Arc A750 8 GB — offload — ~1.5 no Check

CPU · CPU + system RAM

DeviceMemoryBest quant with headroomFits at allMax context @ Q4_K_MTok/s est.128K
CPU only · DDR4 dual-channel 32 GB — no — — no Check
CPU only · DDR5 dual-channel 64 GB — no — — no Check
CPU only · DDR5 8-channel server 256 GB Q5_K_M Q6_K 128K 4.6 yes Check