What LLM Can I Run?

Find out what LLM your computer can run. One-click GPU detection checks Llama, Gemma, Qwen, DeepSeek, GPT-OSS and 50+ more models against your VRAM and RAM — with speed estimates.

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See Which LLMs Your Computer Can Actually Run

Downloading a multi-gigabyte model only to hit an out-of-memory error is a waste of time. This tool detects your GPU and ranks 50+ open models — Llama, Gemma, Qwen, DeepSeek and more — by whether they fit in your available VRAM, so you know what's realistic before you download anything.

How the Fit Check Works

The main constraint for running a model locally is VRAM. A model fits when its weights plus the KV cache for your context size stay within your GPU memory, with a little headroom for overhead. As a rough guide:

  • Each billion parameters needs about 0.5 GB at 4-bit, ~1 GB at 8-bit, and ~2 GB at FP16.
  • Quantization is the main lever — dropping to 4-bit can turn a model that won't load into one that runs comfortably.
  • Longer context windows add KV-cache memory on top of the weights.

So a card with 8 GB might comfortably run a 7B model at 4-bit, while a 24 GB card opens the door to much larger models.

What You Get

The results separate models that fit easily, those that fit only at lower quantization, and those that won't load, giving you a practical shortlist rather than guesswork. GPU detection runs with one click so you don't have to look up your card's specs.

When to Use It

Use it before your first local-model download, when upgrading a GPU, or when deciding which quantization to grab. For the underlying numbers, see the LLM VRAM Calculator and the LLM Inference Speed Calculator. Detection runs in your browser via WebGPU — no hardware details are uploaded.

How We Decide What "Runs" on Your Hardware

Whether a model runs is a memory question first and a speed question second.

Memory gate: a model needs room for its weights (parameter count x bytes per parameter at the chosen quantization), its KV cache (grows with context length), and runtime overhead. We check this against your GPU memory first, then against GPU + system RAM combined (CPU offloading).

Speed estimate: for models that fit, generation speed is approximately memory bandwidth divided by bytes read per token, derated to 65% for real-world engine efficiency. Models that need CPU offloading are penalized by system RAM bandwidth, which is the actual bottleneck.

Quantization ladder: we test each model from Q8_0 (near-lossless) down to IQ2_M (heavily compressed), and report the best quality level that fits. A model that only fits at 2-bit quantization is ranked lower because the quality loss is significant.

Reading Your Results: What to Actually Download

Once you know what runs, here is how to act on it:

For chat and general use: pick the largest model in your "runs great" tier. Larger models are smarter; there is rarely a reason to run a 4B model if a 12B model runs well on your hardware.

For coding: coding-tuned models (Qwen3 Coder, Devstral) outperform general models of the same size at code tasks. A 30B MoE coder that runs great beats a 70B general model that runs slowly — latency matters when you are iterating.

For long documents: check the "max context" figure on each card. A model that runs great at 8K context may not handle a 100K-token document. Models with efficient attention (Gemma sliding-window, DeepSeek MLA) degrade least at long context.

Then download it: use the Ollama Command Builder linked on each model card to get the exact pull command for the quantization that fits your hardware.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does the GPU detection work?+

Your browser exposes the GPU model name through WebGL and WebGPU APIs (the same way games detect graphics settings). We match that name against our hardware database to get its specs. Everything happens locally in your browser — nothing is sent to a server. Browsers never reveal memory amounts for privacy reasons, which is why we ask you to confirm your VRAM and RAM.

What do the tiers mean?+

Runs great: the model fits entirely in your GPU memory at good quality (Q4_K_M or better) and generates at comfortable speed. Runs with trade-offs: it works, but needs aggressive quantization (quality loss) or runs slowly. Technically runs: requires CPU offloading or extreme compression — expect single-digit tokens per second. Will not run: the model does not fit in your combined GPU memory and system RAM at any quantization.

What is CPU offloading and why is it slow?+

When a model does not fit entirely in GPU memory, inference engines like llama.cpp can keep some layers in system RAM and run them on the CPU. It works, but system RAM bandwidth (50-90 GB/s) is 10-40x slower than GPU memory bandwidth, so every offloaded layer drags down generation speed. A model that is 40% offloaded typically runs 3-5x slower than one that fits entirely on the GPU.

Why do some huge models run faster than smaller ones?+

Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models only read a fraction of their parameters for each token. GPT-OSS 120B reads just 5.1B parameters per token, so it generates as fast as a 5B model — but it still needs memory for all 120B parameters. That is why you will sometimes see a 30B MoE model ranked "runs great" while a 32B dense model is marked slow: same memory needs, very different speeds.

What hardware do I need to run a 70B model well?+

For Llama 3.3 70B at Q4_K_M (about 43 GB), you need roughly 48 GB of GPU memory: two 24 GB GPUs (2x RTX 3090 or 4090), one 48 GB workstation card (RTX 6000 Ada), a Mac with 64 GB+ unified memory, or a datacenter GPU. On a 64 GB Mac it runs at about 5-7 tokens/sec; on 2x RTX 4090 with tensor parallelism, around 20-25 tokens/sec.

My GPU was not detected. Why?+

Safari and some privacy-focused browsers report a generic "Apple GPU" or hide the renderer string entirely. Some Linux setups report the Mesa driver name instead of the GPU model. If detection fails, just pick your hardware manually from the vendor list — the results are identical.

Does this account for context length?+

Yes — rankings are computed at 8K tokens of context, a realistic everyday setting. Each model card also shows the maximum context that fits on your hardware. Long contexts need significantly more memory (the KV cache grows linearly), so a model that fits at 8K may not fit at 64K.

What about quantized models I download from Hugging Face?+

The quantization levels we test (Q8_0 down to IQ2_M) correspond to the standard GGUF files you will find on Hugging Face and in Ollama. When a model is ranked "runs great at Q4_K_M", that is exactly the file variant to download. Use our Ollama Command Builder to get the right pull command.

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This tool is provided for informational and educational purposes only. All processing happens in your browser — no data is sent to or stored on our servers. While we strive for accuracy, we make no warranties about the completeness or reliability of results.