Nous Dolphin 13B needs ~24.0 GB but RTX 4000 Ada Laptop 12GB only has 12.0 GB. Try a smaller quantization or lighter model.
Operating mode
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.
Select quantization to explore
12.0 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
6.0 tok/s
TTFT
32220 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
24.0 GB / 12.0 GB
Offload
50%
Usable VRAM is the main blocker for this model.
Not enough usable memory
The model needs 24.0 GB, but this setup only exposes 12.0 GB of usable VRAM.
Add more VRAM headroom
The first useful upgrade is more dedicated VRAM so you can fit the model without shrinking context or dropping to a much lower quant.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | F | Too heavy | 11.2 tok/s | 9466 ms | 4K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 6.0 tok/s | 32220 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 5.2 tok/s | 54627 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 6.0 tok/s | 38078 ms | 4K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 5.2 tok/s | 68284 ms | 4K |
Inference speed
Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Nous Dolphin 13B at Q5_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~131 tok/s. Speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so cards that fit the whole model in VRAM run far faster than ones that offload to system RAM.
| GPU / Mac | Memory | Quant | Speed (tok/s) | Fits? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 RTX 5090 32GB | 32 GB | Q5_K_M | 130.8 | Fits |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | 256 GB | Q5_K_M | 60.7 | Fits |
| RTX 4090 24GB | 24 GB | Q5_K_M | 56.7 | Offloads |
RX 7900 XTX 24GB | 24 GB | Q5_K_M | 51.1 | Offloads |
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q5_K_M | 50.6 | Fits |
| RTX 3090 24GB | 24 GB | Q5_K_M | 48.5 | Offloads |
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q5_K_M | 47.9 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 GB | Q5_K_M | 33.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q5_K_M | 33.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q5_K_M | 26.2 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q5_K_M | 24.0 | Fits |
| RTX 4080 Super 16GB | 16 GB | Q5_K_M | 20.6 | Too big |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB | 48 GB | Q5_K_M | 20.2 | Fits |
| RTX 4070 12GB | 12 GB | Q5_K_M | 7.2 | Too big |
| RTX 3060 12GB | 12 GB | Q5_K_M | 4.5 | Too big |
| RTX 4060 8GB | 8 GB | Q5_K_M | 3.2 | Too big |
Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q5_K_M; real tokens/sec varies with prompt length, context, batch size, and runtime build. Prompt processing (prefill) is faster than the decode figures shown here.
How Nous Dolphin 13B (13B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4000 Ada Laptop 12GB (12.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 5.1 GB | Low | A73 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 6.4 GB | Low | A73 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 7.3 GB | Medium | A73 |
Q4_K_MBest for your GPU | 4 | 7.9 GB | Medium | A72 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 9.4 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 10.7 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 13.9 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 26.7 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Upgrade options
RTX 3090 24GBBudget pickMakes 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 valueMakes 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
RTX 5090 32GBNVIDIA upgradeMakes 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.
~$1,999 MSRP
No, Nous Dolphin 13B requires more memory than RTX 4000 Ada Laptop 12GB provides.
Nous Dolphin 13B (13B parameters) requires approximately 24.0 GB of memory with Q5_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Nous Dolphin 13B is Q5_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On RTX 4000 Ada Laptop 12GB, Nous Dolphin 13B achieves approximately 6.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 32220ms using Q5_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Nous Dolphin 13B on RTX 4000 Ada Laptop 12GB receives a F grade with 6.0 tok/s and 4K context.
On RTX 4000 Ada Laptop 12GB, Nous Dolphin 13B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 16K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Add more VRAM headroom. The first useful upgrade is more dedicated VRAM so you can fit the model without shrinking context or dropping to a much lower quant.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/nous-dolphin-13b-on-rtx-4000-ada-laptop-12gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
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