Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview is a 4.1B-parameter open language model from IBM in the Granite family. It supports a context window of up to 131,072 tokens. At BF16 it needs about 8.77 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
8.3K downloads
31 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- IBM
- Family
- Granite
- Parameters
- 4.1B
- Architecture
- GraniteSwitchForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 131,072 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 100,364
- Release Date
- 2026-05-01
- License
- Apache 2.0
Get Started
HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BF16est. | 16.00 | 8.8 GB | 19.6 GB | 8.30 GB | Brain floating point 16 — preferred for training |
est.= calculated VRAM estimate; no published GGUF file found for that quantization yet. Other rows are verified against real community uploads.
Which GPUs Can Run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview?
BF16 · 8.8 GBGranite Switch 4.1 3B Preview (BF16) requires 8.8 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 12+ GB is recommended. Using the full 131K context window can add up to 10.8 GB, bringing total usage to 19.6 GB. 39 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroom
Decent
— Enough VRAM, may be tightWhich Devices Can Run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview?
BF16 · 8.8 GB49 devices with unified memory can run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB, iPad Pro M5 13" (16 GB).
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomDecent
— Enough memory, may be tightRelated Models
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview need?
Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview requires 8.8 GB of VRAM at BF16. Full 131K context adds up to 10.8 GB (19.6 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 4.1B × 16 bits ÷ 8 = 8.3 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.5 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 11.3 GB (at full 131K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
BF168.8 GBBF16 + full context19.6 GB- Can I run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview on a Mac?
Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview requires at least 8.8 GB at BF16, which exceeds the unified memory of most consumer Macs. You would need a Mac Studio or Mac Pro with a high-memory configuration.
- Can I run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview locally?
Yes — Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview can run locally on consumer hardware. At BF16 quantization it needs 8.8 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview?
At BF16, Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview can reach ~502 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI350X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~75 tok/s. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.
tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency
Example: NVIDIA B200 → 8000 ÷ 8.8 × 0.65 = ~593 tok/s
Estimated speed at BF16 (8.8 GB)
~593 tok/s~75 tok/s~593 tok/s~502 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview?
At BF16, the download is about 8.30 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview?
39 consumer GPUs can run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview at BF16 (8.8 GB). Top options include AMD Radeon RX 6800, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. 26 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
- Which devices can run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview?
52 devices with unified memory can run Granite Switch 4.1 3B Preview at BF16 (8.8 GB), including AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) Laptop, ASUS Ascent GX10, Apple iPhone 17 Pro, Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025, Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.