Can Qwen3.5 27B run on NVIDIA T4 16GB?

Q: What should I upgrade first if Qwen3.5 27B feels slow on NVIDIA T4 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.

YES — With Q3_K_S

D30Poor

Estimated from fit model

Qwen3.5 27B needs ~19.2 GB VRAM. NVIDIA T4 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q3_K_S quantization, expect ~7 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: LowStack: 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.

Qwen3.5 27B at Q4_K_M needs 22.4 GB — too much for NVIDIA T4 16GB (16.0 GB). Runs at Q3_K_S (19.2 GB) with low quality. 2 quantization levels fit.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 22.4 GB, exceeds 16.0 GB available

22.4 GB required16.0 GB available

140% VRAM needed

6.4 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

4.4 tok/s

TTFT

44148 ms

Safe context

Memory

22.4 GB / 16.0 GB

Offload

30%

Memory breakdown

Weights16.5 GB

KV Cache3.2 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower

See how fast it feelsQwen3.5 27B on NVIDIA T4 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: 4.4 tok/s decode · 44.1s TTFT (warm) · 11 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 20% 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.

Older PCIe generation

PCIe 3.0 is workable, but it compounds the penalty when you offload heavily or try to scale across multiple cards.

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 2.2 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	F	Too heavy	5.1 tok/s	20508 ms	4K
Coding	F	Too heavy	4.4 tok/s	44148 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	3.3 tok/s	85796 ms	4K
Reasoning	F	Too heavy	4.4 tok/s	52175 ms	4K
RAG	F	Too heavy	3.3 tok/s	107245 ms	4K

Quantization options

How Qwen3.5 27B (27B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA T4 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_KBest for your GPU	2	10.5 GB	Low	C51
Q3_K_S	3	13.2 GB	Low	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Qwen3.5 27B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
  --hf-repo "unsloth/Qwen3.5-27B-GGUF" \
  --hf-file "Qwen3.5-27B-GGUF-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
  -c 4096 -ngl 99

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Qwen3.5 27B well

RTX 4000 Ada 20GBNVIDIA upgrade

20 GB VRAM (+4)360 GB/s (+40)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.9.7 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 120%.

~$1,250 MSRP

RTX 3090 24GBBudget pick

24 GB VRAM (+8)936 GB/s (+616)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.39.8 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

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

~$1,499 MSRP

RTX 4090 24GBBest value

24 GB VRAM (+8)1008 GB/s (+688)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.46.5 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

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

~$1,599 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA T4 16GB run Qwen3.5 27B?

Yes, NVIDIA T4 16GB can run Qwen3.5 27B at Q3_K_S quantization (Very compromised (needs ~2.2 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 22.4 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q3_K_S it needs only 19.2 GB. Expected decode speed: 7.2 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Qwen3.5 27B need?

Qwen3.5 27B (27B parameters) requires approximately 22.4 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On NVIDIA T4 16GB, it fits at Q3_K_S using 19.2 GB.

What is the best quantization for Qwen3.5 27B?

The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on NVIDIA T4 16GB the best fitting quantization is Q3_K_S, which uses 19.2 GB.

What speed will Qwen3.5 27B run at on NVIDIA T4 16GB?

On NVIDIA T4 16GB, Qwen3.5 27B achieves approximately 7.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 27073ms using Q3_K_S quantization.

Can NVIDIA T4 16GB run Qwen3.5 27B for coding?

For coding workloads, Qwen3.5 27B on NVIDIA T4 16GB receives a F grade with 4.4 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can Qwen3.5 27B use on NVIDIA T4 16GB?

On NVIDIA T4 16GB, Qwen3.5 27B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context at Q3_K_S quantization. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Qwen3.5 27B feels slow on NVIDIA T4 16GB?

See all results for NVIDIA T4 16GB See all hardware for Qwen3.5 27B

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