Granite Vision 4.1 4B — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
Vision
Granite Vision 4.1 4B is IBM's 4-billion-parameter vision-language model in the Granite 4.1 family, purpose-built for enterprise document understanding rather than general chat. It is tailored for reading tables, charts, and key-value data out of scanned documents and images, and is delivered as an adapter built on top of the smaller Granite-4.1-3B text model. Its small size means it runs comfortably on modest consumer hardware once quantized, without needing a high-end GPU, making it practical for local or on-premises document-processing pipelines. The model supports a 131K token context window, enough for multi-page documents. It is released under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing unrestricted commercial and research use, and was published in April 2026 as part of IBM's broader Granite 4.1 release, which also added speech, embedding, and guardrail models.
173.9K downloads
110 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- IBM
- Family
- Granite
- Parameters
- 4.0B
- Architecture
- Granite4VisionForConditionalGeneration
- Context Length
- 131,072 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 100,352
- Release Date
- 2026-04-16
- License
- Apache 2.0
Get Started
HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Granite Vision 4.1 4B Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_Kest. | 3.40 | 2.2 GB | 12.7 GB | 1.70 GB | 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements |
| Q3_K_Mest. | 3.90 | 2.4 GB | 13.0 GB | 1.95 GB | 3-bit medium quantization |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | 2.9 GB | 13.4 GB | 2.40 GB | 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | 3.3 GB | 13.9 GB | 2.85 GB | 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | 3.8 GB | 14.3 GB | 3.30 GB | 6-bit quantization, very good quality |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | 4.5 GB | 15.0 GB | 4.00 GB | 8-bit quantization, near-lossless |
| BF16 | 16.00 | 8.5 GB | 19.0 GB | 7.99 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 Vision 4.1 4B?
Q4_K_M · 2.9 GBGranite Vision 4.1 4B (Q4_K_M) requires 2.9 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 4+ GB is recommended. Using the full 131K context window can add up to 10.6 GB, bringing total usage to 13.4 GB. 52 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomWhich Devices Can Run Granite Vision 4.1 4B?
Q4_K_M · 2.9 GB59 devices with unified memory can run Granite Vision 4.1 4B, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomWhere to Download Granite Vision 4.1 4B
Community quantizations of this model — GGUF for llama.cpp, Ollama, and LM Studio, plus AWQ/MLX variants where available.
Related Models
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Granite Vision 4.1 4B need?
Granite Vision 4.1 4B requires 2.9 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 8.5 GB at BF16. Full 131K context adds up to 10.6 GB (13.4 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 4.0B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 2.4 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.5 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 11 GB (at full 131K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
Q4_K_M2.9 GBQ4_K_M + full context13.4 GB- What's the best quantization for Granite Vision 4.1 4B?
For Granite Vision 4.1 4B, Q4_K_M (2.9 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_M (3.3 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is Q2_K at 2.2 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
Q2_K2.2 GBQ4_K_M ★2.9 GBQ5_K_M3.3 GBQ6_K3.8 GBQ8_04.5 GBBF168.5 GB★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
- Can I run Granite Vision 4.1 4B on a Mac?
Granite Vision 4.1 4B requires at least 2.2 GB at Q2_K, 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 Vision 4.1 4B locally?
Yes — Granite Vision 4.1 4B can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 2.9 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Granite Vision 4.1 4B?
At Q4_K_M, Granite Vision 4.1 4B can reach ~1673 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI350X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~228 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 ÷ 2.9 × 0.65 = ~1812 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (2.9 GB)
~1812 tok/s~228 tok/s~1812 tok/s~1673 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Granite Vision 4.1 4B?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 2.40 GB. The full-precision BF16 version is 7.99 GB. The smallest option (Q2_K) is 1.70 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Granite Vision 4.1 4B?
52 consumer GPUs can run Granite Vision 4.1 4B at Q4_K_M (2.9 GB). Top options include AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6800, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. 52 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
- Which devices can run Granite Vision 4.1 4B?
59 devices with unified memory can run Granite Vision 4.1 4B at Q4_K_M (2.9 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.