SmolLM3 3B needs ~4.7 GB VRAM. GTX 1650 4GB has 4.0 GB. With Q2_K quantization, expect ~25 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
1.4 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
14.3 tok/s
TTFT
13553 ms
Safe context
5K
Memory
5.4 GB / 4.0 GB
Offload
30%
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.
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 0.2 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | C | Very compromised (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM) | 22.2 tok/s | 4763 ms | 5K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 13.3 tok/s | 14569 ms | 5K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 7.2 tok/s | 38903 ms | 5K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 14.3 tok/s | 16017 ms | 5K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 7.2 tok/s | 48628 ms | 5K |
How SmolLM3 3B (3B params) fits at each quantization level on GTX 1650 4GB (4.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 1.2 GB | Low | B63 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 1.5 GB | Low | B63 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run SmolLM3 3B on your machine.
Run
lms load SmolLM3-3B && lms server startUpgrade options
GTX 1660 Super 6GBBudget 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.
~$229 MSRP
RTX 3050 8GBBest 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.
~$249 MSRP
GTX 1060 6GBNVIDIA 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.
~$249 MSRP
Yes, GTX 1650 4GB can run SmolLM3 3B at Q2_K quantization (Very compromised (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 5.4 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q2_K it needs only 4.7 GB. Expected decode speed: 25.3 tok/s.
SmolLM3 3B (3B parameters) requires approximately 5.4 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On GTX 1650 4GB, it fits at Q2_K using 4.7 GB.
The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on GTX 1650 4GB the best fitting quantization is Q2_K, which uses 4.7 GB.
On GTX 1650 4GB, SmolLM3 3B achieves approximately 25.3 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 7649ms using Q2_K quantization.
For coding workloads, SmolLM3 3B on GTX 1650 4GB receives a F grade with 13.3 tok/s and 5K context.
On GTX 1650 4GB, SmolLM3 3B can safely use up to 10K tokens of context at Q2_K quantization. The model's official context limit is 128K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/smollm3-3b-on-gtx-1650-4gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
| Medium |
| B63 |
Q4_K_MBest for your GPU | 4 | 1.8 GB | Medium | B63 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 2.2 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 2.5 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 3.2 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 6.1 GB | Maximum | F0 |
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.