Qwen 3.6 27B needs ~22.4 GB VRAM. RTX 4090 24GB has 24.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~50 tok/s.
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
Fit status
Tight fit
Decode
50.4 tok/s
TTFT
3842 ms
Safe context
41K
Memory
22.4 GB / 24.0 GB
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
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.
Buy headroom, not only minimum fit
A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | S | Tight fit | 50.4 tok/s | 2096 ms | 41K |
| Coding | S | Tight fit | 50.4 tok/s | 3842 ms | 41K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 50.4 tok/s | 5588 ms | 41K |
| Reasoning | S | Tight fit | 50.4 tok/s | 4541 ms | 41K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 50.4 tok/s | 6986 ms | 41K |
Inference speed
Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Qwen 3.6 27B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~79 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? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 GB | Q4_K_M | 79.0 | Fits | |
| 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 50.4 | Tight | |
| 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 43.1 | Tight | |
RX 7900 XTX 24GB | 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 29.8 | Tight |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | 256 GB | Q4_K_M | 27.8 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 27.4 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 27.4 | Fits |
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 23.1 | Fits |
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 21.9 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB | 48 GB | Q4_K_M | 17.3 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 12.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 11.0 | Fits |
| 16 GB | Q4_K_M | 9.1 | Too big | |
| 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 3.2 | Too big | |
| 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 2.2 | Too big | |
| 8 GB | Q4_K_M | 2.0 | Too big |
Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q4_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 Qwen 3.6 27B (27B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4090 24GB (24.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 10.5 GB | Low | S92 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 13.2 GB | Low | S93 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 15.1 GB | Medium | S92 |
Q4_K_MBest for your GPU | 4 | 16.5 GB | Medium | S92 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 19.4 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 22.1 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 28.9 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 55.4 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Copy-paste commands to run Qwen 3.6 27B on your machine.
Run
lms load Qwen3.6-27B && lms server startYes, RTX 4090 24GB can run Qwen 3.6 27B with a S grade (Tight fit). Expected decode speed: 50.4 tok/s.
Qwen 3.6 27B (27B parameters) requires approximately 22.4 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Qwen 3.6 27B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On RTX 4090 24GB, Qwen 3.6 27B achieves approximately 50.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3842ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Qwen 3.6 27B on RTX 4090 24GB receives a S grade with 50.4 tok/s and 41K context.
On RTX 4090 24GB, Qwen 3.6 27B can safely use up to 41K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 262K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Buy headroom, not only minimum fit. A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/qwen-3.6-27b-on-rtx-4090-24gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview: