Can Codestral 22B run on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

Q: What should I upgrade first if Codestral 22B feels slow on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

Remove offload with more accelerator memory. Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.

BARELY — Tight on Memory

C49Usable

Estimated from fit model

Codestral 22B needs ~18.7 GB VRAM. RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~19 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: MediumStack: BasicBottleneck: Host offload

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.

Current mode

Balanced

Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 18.7 GB, 20.0 tok/s, Very compromised (needs ~1.9 GB host RAM)

18.7 GB required16.0 GB available

117% VRAM needed

2.7 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Very compromised (needs ~1.9 GB host RAM)

Decode

20.0 tok/s

TTFT

9668 ms

Safe context

Memory

18.7 GB / 16.0 GB

Offload

10%

Memory breakdown

Weights13.4 GB

KV Cache2.4 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsCodestral 22B on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort:

def quicksort(arr):
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

# Example usage
numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]
print(quicksort(numbers))  # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10]

The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm.

    Args:
        arr: List of integers to sort.

    Returns:
        A new sorted list.
    """
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 20.0 tok/s decode · 9.7s TTFT (warm) · 50 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

It fits through host-memory offload, and offload is the main reason performance drops.

CPU or host-memory offload is active

About 10% of the working set spills out of accelerator memory, which usually hurts latency and sustained decode throughput.

Very little memory headroom

You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.

Best improvement path

Remove offload with more accelerator memory

Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Increase host RAM if you keep offloading

This setup may need roughly {ram} GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	C	Very compromised (needs ~1.1 GB host RAM)	23.1 tok/s	4574 ms	4K
Coding	C	Very compromised	18.6 tok/s	10393 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	15.5 tok/s	18217 ms	4K
Reasoning	C	Very compromised (needs ~1.9 GB host RAM)	20.0 tok/s	11426 ms	4K
RAG	F	Too heavy	15.5 tok/s	22771 ms

Quantization options

How Codestral 22B (22B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	8.6 GB	Low	B61
Q3_K_SBest for your GPU	3	10.8 GB	Low	B61

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Codestral 22B on your machine.

Run

ollama run codestral

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Codestral 22B well

RTX 4000 Ada 20GBBudget pick

20 GB VRAM (+4)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.22.5 tok/s decode

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$1,250 MSRP

RTX 3090 24GBBest value

24 GB VRAM (+8)936 GB/s (+360)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.52.5 tok/s decode

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 163%.

~$1,499 MSRP

RTX 4090 24GBNVIDIA upgrade

24 GB VRAM (+8)1008 GB/s (+432)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.61.4 tok/s decode

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 207%.

~$1,599 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB run Codestral 22B?

Yes, RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB can run Codestral 22B with a C grade (Very compromised). Expected decode speed: 18.6 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Codestral 22B need?

Codestral 22B (22B parameters) requires approximately 18.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Codestral 22B?

The recommended quantization for Codestral 22B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Codestral 22B run at on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

On RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB, Codestral 22B achieves approximately 18.6 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 10393ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB run Codestral 22B for coding?

For coding workloads, Codestral 22B on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB receives a C grade with 18.6 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can Codestral 22B use on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

On RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB, Codestral 22B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 33K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Codestral 22B feels slow on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

See all results for RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB See all hardware for Codestral 22B

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