NVIDIA · Ampere

Best AI Models for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU (4 GB)

Runs only small models well; 7–9B doesn't fit in 4 GB.

4 GB GDDR6192 GB/s14 TFLOPS FP1680 WAmpere 2021

Laptop RTX 3050 has 4 GB (not the desktop 8 GB), so only ~3B-class Q4 models fit fully on the GPU. Performance varies strongly with the chassis power limit (35-80 W).

What LLMs can the RTX 3050 Laptop GPU run?

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 38.3 t/s	38.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 65.7 t/s	65.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB
3	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 36.4 t/s	36.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB
4	LFM3 1.7BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.1 GB · 86.7 t/s	86.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.1 GB
5	LFM3 Omni 2BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB · 73.4 t/s	73.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB

#	Model	Speed ↓	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 38.3 t/s	38.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	LFM3 1.7BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.1 GB · 86.7 t/s	86.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.1 GB
3	LFM3 Omni 2BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB · 73.4 t/s	73.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB
4	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 65.7 t/s	65.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB
5	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 36.4 t/s	36.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 38.3 t/s	38.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	LFM3 Omni 2BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB · 73.4 t/s	73.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB
3	MiniCPM V 4.7 1BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB · 97.5 t/s	97.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB
4	Qwen3.5 2BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 1.9 GB · 70.5 t/s	70.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 1.9 GB
5	Cosmos Reason2 2BNVIDIA Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 77.5 t/s	77.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB

See all 151 models on the RTX 3050 Laptop GPU →Best quant that fits · speeds estimated on this card

About the RTX 3050 Laptop GPU

The RTX 3050 Laptop GPU runs only small models well. Ampere generation, released 2021.

GenerationAmperereleased 2021

RTX 3050 Laptop GPU strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Low power draw: 80 W board power; a 200 W PSU is enough

Weaknesses

7–9B models don't fit: Qwen3.5 9B needs 6.6 GB at Q4 vs 4 GB here
Slow prompt reading: A 4K-token prompt on Qwen3.5 4B waits 6.0 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 Laptop GPU, each with the one reason it is worth a look.

2 GB more for bigger modelsGTX 1660 SUPERNVIDIA · 6 GB · Turing

▲ 2 GB$22939.6 tok/s

4 GB more for bigger modelsA750Intel · 8 GB · Alchemist

▲ 4 GB$28940.3 tok/s

4 GB more for bigger modelsA580Intel · 8 GB · Alchemist

▲ 4 GB$17940.3 tok/s

4 GB more for bigger modelsA770 8GBIntel · 8 GB · Alchemist

▲ 4 GB$32940.3 tok/s

4 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 3060 TiNVIDIA · 8 GB · Ampere

▲ 4 GB$399rent $0.11/hr45.8 tok/s

4 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 3070NVIDIA · 8 GB · Ampere

▲ 4 GB$499rent $0.10/hr45.8 tok/s

RTX 3050 Laptop GPU tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (192 GB/s). Grey rows need more than 4 GB.

9BQwen3.5 9B · not at 4-bit
needs 6.6 GB
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 562 models on the RTX 3050 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 Laptop GPU — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
Model	Quant	VRAM	Speed	Context	Fit
Qwen3 4B Z Image Engineer V44BChat Q2_K·66.7 t/s	Q2_K	4.0 GB100%	66.7 t/s	—	C44, Usable
Qwen3 14B PARO1.6BChat Q4_K_M·79.5 t/s	Q4_K_M	3.9 GB98%	79.5 t/s	41K	C44, Usable
Shieldgemma 2B2.6BChat Q4_K_M·72.1 t/s	Q4_K_M	3.6 GB90%	72.1 t/s	—	A72, Runs well
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct3.8BChatCode IQ4_XS·39.5 t/s	IQ4_XS	4.0 GB99%	39.5 t/s	4K	C44, Usable
Gemma 2B IT2.5BChat Q4_K_M·75.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	3.5 GB88%	75.6 t/s	—	A76, Runs well
VulnLLM R 7B7.6BChatReasoning IQ2_M·41.7 t/s	IQ2_M	3.8 GB95%	41.7 t/s	33K	B53, Decent
Qwen3.5 9B Base9.7BVision IQ2_S·34.8 t/s	IQ2_S	3.9 GB97%	34.8 t/s	262K	B46, Decent
Supergemma4 E4b Abliterated7.5BChat Q2_K·33.5 t/s	Q2_K	4.0 GB99%	33.5 t/s	131K	C42, Usable
Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B1.5BChatCodeFunctions Q4_K_M·97.5 t/s	Q4_K_M	1.7 GB42%	97.5 t/s	33K	S91, Runs great
Phi 4 Mini Instruct3.8BChatCodeFunctions IQ3_XXS·60.9 t/s	IQ3_XXS	3.9 GB98%	60.9 t/s	131K	C44, Usable
Dream V0 Instruct 7B7.6BChatFunctions IQ2_M·41.7 t/s	IQ2_M	3.8 GB95%	41.7 t/s	131K	B53, Decent
Granite 4.0 H Tiny6.9BChatFunctions IQ2_M·143.8 t/s	IQ2_M	4.0 GB100%	143.8 t/s	131K	C44, Usable
Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B494MChatCodeFunctions Q4_K_M·201.3 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.8 GB20%	201.3 t/s	33K	S100, Runs great
Qwen3 4B Base4.0BChat IQ4_XS·47.1 t/s	IQ4_XS	4.0 GB99%	47.1 t/s	33K	C44, Usable
Gemma 3 4B Pt4.3BVision IQ3_XXS·68.2 t/s	IQ3_XXS	4.0 GB100%	68.2 t/s	—	C44, Usable

RTX 3050 Laptop GPU specs, power and PSU

Specs

Architecture: Ampere
VRAM: 4 GB GDDR6
Memory bandwidth: 192.0 GB/s
FP16 (dense): 14.25 TFLOPS
CUDA cores: 2,048
Tensor cores: 64
Compute capability: 8.6
TDP: 80 W
Released: 2021-05-11

RTX 3050 Laptop GPU FAQ

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

Qwen3.5 4B (4.7B) is the largest at 4-bit or better: at Q4_K_M it uses 3.4 GB of 4 GB, and runs at about 38.3 tok/s.

Can the RTX 3050 Laptop GPU run 7–9B models?

No. Qwen3.5 9B needs 6.6 GB at Q4, more than the 4 GB on this card.

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

About 38.3 tok/s on Qwen3.5 4B at Q4_K_M, with the first token after 6.0 s on a 4K-token prompt.

What power supply does the RTX 3050 Laptop GPU need?

Plan a 200 W PSU (2× the 80 W TDP).

Is renting cheaper than buying an RTX 3050 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 4 GB or more RTX 3070 Ti RTX 2080 SUPER RTX 2070