Best Local AI Models for NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop (8 GB VRAM)

Q: What is the VRAM and memory bandwidth of the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop?

The NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop features 8 GB of VRAM and a memory bandwidth of 256 GB/s (GDDR6 128-bit). In local language model inference, VRAM determines which model sizes fit on the card, while memory bandwidth dictates how many tokens per second the GPU generates.

The NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop has 8 GB of VRAM. Here are the popular AI models it can run locally (4,096-token context, ~16.0 GB system RAM assumed), ranked by popularity.

Verdict: In 4-bit quantization, 7B–9B models fit entirely in VRAM, 12B is borderline, and larger models spill into system RAM, which slows them sharply. Each laptop maker sets the power limit (35–115 W).

This page also covers the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU: it has the same 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus (256 GB/s), so both cards reach the same local-LLM generation speed. The RTX 4070 Laptop's extra cores mainly speed up prompt processing, not token generation.

VRAM & Memory

8 GB

GDDR6 128-bit

Bandwidth

256 GB/s

Ada Lovelace

Fits in VRAM

25 models

Zero offload

TDP / Assumed RAM

115W

RAM: 16.0 GB

At a glance — 25 of the 36 most popular models run fully in VRAM on the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop (8 GB), with about 43 tokens/s estimated on an 8B model in Q4. A solid pick is Qwen/Qwen3-8B-GGUF (Q6_K, 7.63 GB, ~40.9 t/s estimated).

The NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop is built on NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture featuring GDDR6 128-bit delivering 256 GB/s of raw memory bandwidth. In 4-bit quantization, 7B–9B models fit entirely in VRAM, 12B is borderline, and larger models spill into system RAM, which slows them sharply. Each laptop maker sets the power limit (35–115 W).

Equipped with 8 GB of dedicated VRAM, the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop can run 25 popular open-source models completely in GPU memory without offloading. This includes full-speed execution for weights like Qwen3-8B-GGUF, Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct-GGUF, Qwen3-4B-GGUF. For a comprehensive breakdown of compatible model weights, see our guide to the best LLMs for 8 GB VRAM.

With a memory bandwidth of 256 GB/s, this card can generate tokens at an estimated peak rate of ~42.7 tokens/second on an 8B parameter model (Q4_K_M). Its rated power draw is 115W TDP, so ensure your system's power supply and case ventilation are adequate for sustained local inferencing.

New to this? Read: How much VRAM do you need?

How the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop compares with similar cards

Compared with the NVIDIA RTX 5070/5060/5050 Laptop, the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop has the same 8 GB of VRAM, so the same models fit fully on the GPU; about 33% slower token generation (~43 vs ~64 tokens/s on an 8B model in Q4, from 256 vs 384 GB/s); a higher maximum power limit (115 vs 100 W) and an older architecture (Ada Lovelace vs Blackwell). Side-by-side comparison
Compared with the NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti / 3070 Laptop, the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop has the same 8 GB of VRAM, so the same models fit fully on the GPU; about 43% slower token generation (~43 vs ~75 tokens/s on an 8B model in Q4, from 256 vs 448 GB/s); a lower maximum power limit (115 vs 125 W) and a newer architecture (Ada Lovelace vs Ampere). Side-by-side comparison
Compared with the NVIDIA RTX 4050 Laptop, the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop has 2 GB more VRAM (8 vs 6 GB), so larger models or longer contexts fit and about 33% faster token generation (~43 vs ~32 tokens/s on an 8B model in Q4, from 256 vs 192 GB/s). Side-by-side comparison

Token speeds here are a conservative estimate (memory bandwidth ÷ 6, for an 8B model in Q4 that reads about 5 GB of weights per token, plus overhead); prompt processing depends on GPU compute instead.

25 fit fully in VRAM · 11 run with offload

Only show models that fit fully in VRAM

Model	Size	Quant.	Quality	Memory	Speed~	Verdict
Qwen/Qwen3-8B-GGUF	8.19B	Q6_K	Excellent	7.63 GB	40.9 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct-GGUF	7.62B	Q6_K	Excellent	6.84 GB	44.0 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen3-4B-GGUF	4.02B	Q8_0	Excellent	5.35 GB	64.2 t/s	Fits in VRAM
LiquidAI/LFM2.5-2.6B-GGUF	2.7B	BF16	Excellent	5.89 GB	50.9 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen2.5-1.5B-Instruct-GGUF	1.54B	GGUF	Excellent	4.23 GB	77.2 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct-GGUF	0.49B	GGUF	Excellent	2.03 GB	217.1 t/s	Fits in VRAM
unsloth/Ornith-1.0-9B-GGUF	—	Q6_K	Excellent	7.89 GB	36.8 t/s	Fits in VRAM
bartowski/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-GGUF	8.03B	Q6_K_L	Excellent	7.66 GB	40.1 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-7B-Instruct-GGUF	7.62B	Q6_K	Excellent	6.84 GB	44.0 t/s	Fits in VRAM
janhq/Jan-v3.5-4B-gguf	4.41B	Q8_0	Excellent	5.73 GB	58.6 t/s	Fits in VRAM
LiquidAI/LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct-GGUF	1.17B	BF16	Excellent	3.03 GB	117.3 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct-GGUF	3.09B	GGUF	Excellent	7.27 GB	40.4 t/s	Fits in VRAM
ggml-org/gpt-oss-120b-GGUF	116.83B	BF16	Very low	2.42 GB	173.2 t/s	Fits in VRAM
LiquidAI/LFM2.5-230M-GGUF	0.23B	BF16	Excellent	1.28 GB	595.1 t/s	Fits in VRAM
unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF	8.0B	Q6_K_XL	Excellent	7.62 GB	37.9 t/s	Fits in VRAM
unsloth/Qwen3-1.7B-GGUF	1.72B	BF16	Excellent	4.45 GB	79.7 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-1.5B-Instruct-GGUF	1.54B	Q8_0	Excellent	2.67 GB	145.1 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B-GGUF	0.75B	Q8_0	Excellent	1.83 GB	429.9 t/s	Fits in VRAM
Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-14B-Instruct-GGUF	14.77B	Q2_K	Low	6.92 GB	47.6 t/s	Fits in VRAM
unsloth/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct-GGUF	3.21B	F16	Excellent	7.23 GB	42.7 t/s	Fits in VRAM
bartowski/Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct-GGUF	14.77B	IQ3_M	Fair	7.99 GB	39.7 t/s	Fits in VRAM
unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-GGUF	8.19B	Q6_K	Excellent	7.63 GB	40.9 t/s	Fits in VRAM
bartowski/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-GGUF	1.24B	F16	Excellent	3.3 GB	110.9 t/s	Fits in VRAM
bartowski/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B-GGUF	7.62B	Q6_K_L	Excellent	7.09 GB	42.2 t/s	Fits in VRAM
LiquidAI/LFM3-1.7B-GGUF	1.73B	BF16	Excellent	4.08 GB	79.3 t/s	Fits in VRAM
bartowski/Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-GGUF	32.76B	Q5_K_L	Very good	23.91 GB	2.3 t/s	Offload
unsloth/gpt-oss-20b-GGUF	20.91B	F16	Very good	13.74 GB	3.9 t/s	Offload
unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-GGUF	30.53B	Q5_K_XL	Very good	21.42 GB	2.5 t/s	Offload
Qwen/Qwen3-14B-GGUF	14.77B	Q8_0	Excellent	16.05 GB	3.4 t/s	Offload
bartowski/Kwaipilot_KAT-Coder-V2.5-Dev-GGUF	34.66B	Q5_K_S	Very good	23.38 GB	2.2 t/s	Offload
unsloth/GLM-4.7-Flash-GGUF	31.22B	Q5_K_XL	Very good	21.21 GB	2.5 t/s	Offload
unsloth/flint-GGUF	39.79B	Q3_K_XL	Fair	18.13 GB	2.9 t/s	Offload
unsloth/Qwen-AgentWorld-35B-A3B-GGUF	34.66B	Q4_K_XL	Very good	21.67 GB	2.4 t/s	Offload
LiquidAI/LFM2.5-24B-A2B-GGUF	23.97B	Q6_K	Excellent	19.22 GB	2.7 t/s	Offload
ggml-org/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Lightning-30B-A3B-GGUF	31.58B	Q4_0	Good	18.42 GB	2.8 t/s	Offload
unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-Next-GGUF	79.67B	IQ2_XXS	Very low	22.89 GB	2.3 t/s	Offload

"Fits in VRAM" = fast, fully on GPU. "Offload" = part on system RAM, slower. Speed is a rough estimate from the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop's 256 GB/s memory bandwidth (offloaded models are limited by system RAM).

Frequently asked questions

What is the VRAM and memory bandwidth of the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop?

The NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop features 8 GB of VRAM and a memory bandwidth of 256 GB/s (GDDR6 128-bit). In local language model inference, VRAM determines which model sizes fit on the card, while memory bandwidth dictates how many tokens per second the GPU generates.

What is the best local AI model to run on a NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop?

The best overall model for the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop is Qwen/Qwen3-8B-GGUF using the recommended Q6_K quantization (7.63 GB total memory). With 8 GB of VRAM, this GPU typically runs a 7–8B model at Q6, entirely in VRAM at full GPU speed. Check our guide to the best LLMs for 8 GB VRAM for details.

What models can you run on an 8 GB GPU like the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop?

With 8 GB of VRAM, the NVIDIA RTX 4070 / 4060 Laptop comfortably runs 7B and 8B models (such as Llama 3.1 8B, Mistral 7B, or Qwen 2.5 7B) using Q4_K_M or Q5_K_M quantizations (~5.5 to 6.8 GB). Running 14B models requires offloading memory to system RAM, which lowers token generation speed.