Can GLM-4 9B run on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB?

YES — Runs Great

A76Great

Estimated from fit model

GLM-4 9B needs ~8.5 GB VRAM. RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB has 12.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~49 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Balanced

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) — 8.5 GB, 48.9 tok/s, Runs well

8.5 GB required12.0 GB available

71% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

48.9 tok/s

TTFT

3962 ms

Safe context

108K

Memory

8.5 GB / 12.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache0.6 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.2 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsGLM-4 9B on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>What is local AI inference?
Local AI inference means running an AI language model directly on your own hardware — your laptop, desktop, or server — instead of sending requests to a remote cloud API.

When you run inference locally the model weights are loaded into your GPU or unified memory. Each token you generate requires reading those weights from memory, so memory bandwidth is the main bottleneck for decode speed.

Key benefits of running locally:
  - Full privacy: your prompts never leave your machine
  - No per-token cost or rate limits
  - Works offline once the model is downloaded
  - Latency depends only on your hardware
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>How much VRAM do I need?
It depends on the model size and quantization level. A rough rule of thumb:

  Model size     Q4 (4-bit)    Q8 (8-bit)    FP16
  7B params      ~4.3 GB       ~7.5 GB       ~14 GB
  13B params     ~7.9 GB       ~13.9 GB      ~26 GB
  70B params     ~42.7 GB      ~74.9 GB      ~140 GB

Most people use 4-bit quantization (Q4_K_M) which gives 90-95% of full quality at a fraction of the memory. A 24 GB GPU can comfortably run most 7B-13B models.
Estimated: 48.9 tok/s decode · 4.0s TTFT (warm) · 122 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

No major red flags

This recommendation has enough memory headroom and acceptable estimated speed for the selected workload.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	A	Runs well	48.9 tok/s	2161 ms	108K
Coding	A	Runs well	48.9 tok/s	3962 ms	108K
Agentic Coding	A	Runs well	48.9 tok/s	5763 ms	108K
Reasoning	A	Runs well	48.9 tok/s	4682 ms	108K
RAG	A	Runs well	48.9 tok/s	7203 ms	108K

Quantization options

How GLM-4 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB (12.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	A71
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	A73
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run GLM-4 9B on your machine.

Run

ollama run glm4

Your hardware

More models your RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode	Capabilities
Qwen 3 14B	14B	A	18.5 tok/s
Ministral 3 14B	14B	A	18.4 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB run GLM-4 9B?

Yes, RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB can run GLM-4 9B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 48.9 tok/s.

How much VRAM does GLM-4 9B need?

GLM-4 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 8.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for GLM-4 9B?

The recommended quantization for GLM-4 9B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will GLM-4 9B run at on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB?

On RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB, GLM-4 9B achieves approximately 48.9 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3962ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB run GLM-4 9B for coding?

For coding workloads, GLM-4 9B on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB receives a A grade with 48.9 tok/s and 108K context.

What context window can GLM-4 9B use on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB?

On RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB, GLM-4 9B can safely use up to 108K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 128K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB See all hardware for GLM-4 9B

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