Can Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 run on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

YES — Runs Great

C46Usable

Estimated from fit model

Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 needs ~4.7 GB VRAM. RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~48 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: MediumStack: StandardBottleneck: 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) — 4.7 GB, 48.0 tok/s, Runs well

4.7 GB required16.0 GB available

29% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

48.0 tok/s

TTFT

4033 ms

Safe context

531K

Memory

4.7 GB / 16.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights1.8 GB

KV Cache0.4 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsMinistral 3 3B Instruct 2512 on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB
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: 48.0 tok/s decode · 4.0s TTFT (warm) · 120 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	C	Runs well	48.0 tok/s	2200 ms	531K
Coding	C	Runs well	48.0 tok/s	4033 ms	531K
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	48.0 tok/s	5867 ms	531K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	48.0 tok/s	4767 ms	531K
RAG	C	Runs well	48.0 tok/s	7333 ms	531K

Quantization options

How Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 (3B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	1.2 GB	Low	C46
Q3_K_S	3	1.5 GB	Low	C46
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-mistralai--ministral-3-3b-instruct-2512-gguf && lms server start

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 well

MacBook Air M4 24GBBudget pick

24 GB Unified (+8)

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.42 tok/s decode

~$1,099 MSRP

MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GBBest value

24 GB Unified (+8)

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.42 tok/s decode

~$1,999 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB run Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512?

Yes, RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB can run Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 48.0 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 need?

Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 (3B parameters) requires approximately 4.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512?

The recommended quantization for Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 run at on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

On RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 achieves approximately 48.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 4033ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB run Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 for coding?

For coding workloads, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB receives a C grade with 48.0 tok/s and 531K context.

What context window can Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 use on RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB?

On RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 can safely use up to 531K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 4090 Laptop 16GB See all hardware for Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512

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