NVIDIA · Ampere

Best AI Models for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU

Runs only small models well; 7–9B only just fits.

6 GB GDDR6144 GB/s15 TFLOPS FP1680 WAmpere 2023

Separate laptop part (6 GB on a 96-bit bus, ~144 GB/s) - not the same as the older 4 GB RTX 3050 Laptop. Holds ~7B Q4 models with a small context; slower than its 6 GB size suggests.

What LLMs can the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU run?

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 28.7 t/s	28.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Gemma 3 4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB · 33.0 t/s	33.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB
3	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 27.3 t/s	27.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB
4	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 31.6 t/s	31.6 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
5	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 49.3 t/s	49.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Reasoning Score	Quant · VRAM
1	Gemma 3 4B ITGoogleHow to run → Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB · 33.0 t/s	33.0 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB
2	Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 28.7 t/s	28.7 tok/s	overall	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
3	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 27.3 t/s	27.3 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB
4	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 31.6 t/s	31.6 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
5	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 49.3 t/s	49.3 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 28.7 t/s	28.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 27.3 t/s	27.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB
3	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 31.6 t/s	31.6 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
4	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 49.3 t/s	49.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB
5	MiniCPM V 4.7 1BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB · 73.1 t/s	73.1 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB

#	Model	Speed ↓	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 28.7 t/s	28.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Ling 3.0 TinyInclusion AI Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB · 88.4 t/s	88.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB
3	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 49.3 t/s	49.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB
4	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 31.6 t/s	31.6 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
5	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 27.3 t/s	27.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 28.7 t/s	28.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Gemma 3 4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB · 33.0 t/s	33.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB
3	MiniCPM V 4.7 1BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB · 73.1 t/s	73.1 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB
4	LFM3 Omni 2BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB · 55.1 t/s	55.1 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB
5	Cosmos Reason2 2BNVIDIA Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 58.1 t/s	58.1 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB

See all 193 models on the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU →Best quant that fits · speeds estimated on this card

About the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU

The RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU runs only small models well. Ampere generation, released 2023.

GenerationAmperereleased 2023

RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Runs 7–9B models: Qwen3.5 9B at 17.0 tok/s in 5.8 GB
Low power draw: 80 W board power; a 200 W PSU is enough

Weaknesses

14B models don't fit: Qwen3 14B needs 11.9 GB at Q4 vs 6 GB here
Little room for context: Qwen3.5 9B uses 5.8 of 6 GB, 0.2 GB left
Slow prompt reading: A 4K-token prompt on Qwen3.5 4B waits 5.6 s for the first token
No FP8 or NVFP4: Ampere predates both; use GGUF, AWQ or GPTQ builds

Similar GPUs

Cards people weigh against the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU, each with the one reason it is worth a look.

About as fast, same 6 GBGTX 1060 6GBNVIDIA · 6 GB · Pascal

same 6 GB$24922.6 tok/s

2 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 4060NVIDIA · 8 GB · Ada Lovelace

▲ 2 GB$520rent $0.08/hr27.8 tok/s

2 GB more for bigger modelsA750Intel · 8 GB · Alchemist

▲ 2 GB$28940.3 tok/s

2 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 3070 TiNVIDIA · 8 GB · Ampere

▲ 2 GB$599rent $0.13/hr62.2 tok/s

5 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 2080 TiNVIDIA · 11 GB · Turing

▲ 5 GB$999rent $0.28/hr63.0 tok/s

6 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPUNVIDIA · 12 GB · Blackwell

▲ 6 GB68.7 tok/s

RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (144 GB/s). Grey rows need more than 6 GB.

9BQwen3.5 9B · Q3_K_L · 5.8 GB tight · Q3_K_L
17.0tok/s
14BQwen3 14B · not at 4-bit
needs 11.9 GB
27–31BQwen3.8 27B · not at 4-bit
needs 17.9 GB
35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · not at 4-bit
needs 22.0 GB
70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct · not at 4-bit
needs 51.3 GB
120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · not at 4-bit
needs 70.8 GB

Estimated speeds: Q4_K_M, 4K context, one user. How we estimate

All 738 models on the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU

Featured only

Best quant that fits, ordered by llmrun Score. Fit grades how well it runs here, S best. How ranking works

LLM models compatible with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
Model	Quant	VRAM	Speed	Context	Fit
Dream V0 Instruct 7B7.6BChatFunctions Q4_K_M·18.8 t/s	Q4_K_M	5.8 GB97%	18.8 t/s	131K	C32, Usable
Qwen3.5 9B Gemini 3.1 Pro Reasoning Distill9.7BChatReasoning Q3_K_M·17.8 t/s	Q3_K_M	5.5 GB92%	17.8 t/s	262K	C40, Usable
Opt 1.3B1.3BChat FP16·32.7 t/s	FP16	2.9 GB48%	32.7 t/s	2K	A72, Runs well
NuExtract3.8BChat Q4_K_M·27.5 t/s	Q4_K_M	4.2 GB70%	27.5 t/s	4K	A68, Runs well
Tiny Qwen2ForCausalLM 2.52MChatFunctions Q4_K_M·312.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.6 GB9%	312.0 t/s	33K	S100, Runs great
TinyLlama 1.1B Chat V0.61.1BChat Q4_K_M·92.7 t/s	Q4_K_M	1.0 GB17%	92.7 t/s	2K	S90, Runs great
Polyglot Ko 1.3B1.4BChat Q4_K_M·98.5 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.9 GB16%	98.5 t/s	2K	S91, Runs great
Starcoder2 3B3.0BChatCode Q4_K_M·42.9 t/s	Q4_K_M	2.6 GB44%	42.9 t/s	16K	A77, Runs well
GPT J 6B6BChat Q4_K_M·23.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	4.0 GB66%	23.6 t/s	2K	B64, Decent
Llama 7B6.7BChat Q4_K_M·21.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	4.5 GB74%	21.0 t/s	2K	B61, Decent
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct8.0BChatFunctions IQ3_XXS·27.4 t/s	IQ3_XXS	6.0 GB100%	27.4 t/s	131K	C37, Usable
Qwen2.5 Omni 3B5.5BChat Q4_K_M·25.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	6.0 GB99%	25.6 t/s	—	C36, Usable
Gemma 3 270M IT270MChat Q4_K_M·520.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	1.2 GB19%	520.0 t/s	—	S100, Runs great
Hunyuan 7B Instruct7.5BChat IQ3_M·23.7 t/s	IQ3_M	5.8 GB97%	23.7 t/s	33K	C38, Usable
LFM2 1.2B1.2BChatFunctions Q4_K_M·87.5 t/s	Q4_K_M	1.2 GB21%	87.5 t/s	128K	S89, Runs great

RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU specs, power and PSU

Specs

Architecture: Ampere
VRAM: 6 GB GDDR6
Memory bandwidth: 144.0 GB/s
FP16 (dense): 15.28 TFLOPS
CUDA cores: 2,560
Tensor cores: 80
Compute capability: 8.6
TDP: 80 W
Released: 2023-01-06

RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU FAQ

What is the largest model the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU can run?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (7.6B) is the largest at 4-bit or better: at Q4_K_M it uses 5.8 GB of 6 GB, and runs at about 18.8 tok/s. At 3-bit, a bigger model fits too: Gemma 2 9B IT (9.2B) at IQ3_M, 5.7 GB.

Can the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU run Qwen3.5 4B?

Yes. Qwen3.5 4B fits at Q4_K_M, using 3.4 GB of 6 GB, and it is the best model that runs well on this card.

Can the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU run 14B models?

No. Qwen3 14B needs 11.9 GB at Q4, more than the 6 GB on this card.

How many tokens per second does the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU give?

About 28.7 tok/s on Qwen3.5 4B at Q4_K_M, with the first token after 5.6 s on a 4K-token prompt.

What power supply does the RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU need?

Plan a 200 W PSU (2× the 80 W TDP).

Is renting cheaper than buying an RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU?

An RTX 3080 Ti (12 GB) rents from $0.12/hr. With regular daily use, owning pays off.

Best coding LLMs 8 GB VRAM GPUs with 6 GB or more RTX 3080 Ti RTX 3080 12GB RTX 3080