Can GLM-4 9B run on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB?

YES — With Q3_K_S

B60Good

Estimated from fit model

GLM-4 9B needs ~6.8 GB VRAM. RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB has 6.0 GB. With Q3_K_S quantization, expect ~19 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: Very 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.

GLM-4 9B at Q4_K_M needs 7.9 GB — too much for RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB (6.0 GB). Runs at Q3_K_S (6.8 GB) with low quality. 2 quantization levels fit.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 7.9 GB, exceeds 6.0 GB available

7.9 GB required6.0 GB available

132% VRAM needed

1.9 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

11.7 tok/s

TTFT

16497 ms

Safe context

Memory

7.9 GB / 6.0 GB

Offload

20%

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache0.6 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom0.6 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower

See how fast it feelsGLM-4 9B on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB
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: 11.7 tok/s decode · 16.5s TTFT (warm) · 29 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 10% 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.

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 0.5 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	12.7 tok/s	8282 ms	4K
Coding	F	Too heavy	11.7 tok/s	16497 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	10.0 tok/s	28065 ms	4K
Reasoning	F	Too heavy	11.7 tok/s	19497 ms	4K
RAG	F	Too heavy	10.0 tok/s	35082 ms	4K

Quantization options

How GLM-4 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB (6.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_KBest for your GPU	2	3.5 GB	Low	A75
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	F0
NVFP4	4	5.0 GB	Medium	F0
Q4_K_M	4	5.5 GB	Medium	F0
Q5_K_M	5	6.5 GB	High	F0
Q6_K	6	7.4 GB	High	F0
Q8_0	8	9.6 GB	Very High	F0
F16	16	18.5 GB	Maximum	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run GLM-4 9B on your machine.

Run

ollama run glm4

Opciones de mejora

Hardware que ejecuta bien GLM-4 9B

RTX 3050 8GBOpción económica

8 GB VRAM (+2)224 GB/s (+32)

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.21.5 tok/s decodificación

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.

Elimina el offload a memoria del sistema, que suele ser la mayor mejora individual en latencia y throughput.

~$249 MSRP

RTX 5060 8GBMejor relación calidad-precio

8 GB VRAM (+2)448 GB/s (+256)

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.40.6 tok/s decodificación

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.

Elimina el offload a memoria del sistema, que suele ser la mayor mejora individual en latencia y throughput.

~$299 MSRP

RTX 4060 8GBMejora NVIDIA

8 GB VRAM (+2)272 GB/s (+80)

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.28.9 tok/s decodificación

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.

Elimina el offload a memoria del sistema, que suele ser la mayor mejora individual en latencia y throughput.

~$299 MSRP

RTX 3080 Ti 12GBMayor salto

12 GB VRAM (+6)912 GB/s (+720)

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.126 tok/s decodificación

Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.

Elimina el offload a memoria del sistema, que suele ser la mayor mejora individual en latencia y throughput.

~$1,199 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB run GLM-4 9B?

Yes, RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB can run GLM-4 9B at Q3_K_S quantization (Very compromised (needs ~0.5 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 7.9 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q3_K_S it needs only 6.8 GB. Expected decode speed: 18.5 tok/s.

How much VRAM does GLM-4 9B need?

GLM-4 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 7.9 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB, it fits at Q3_K_S using 6.8 GB.

What is the best quantization for GLM-4 9B?

The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB the best fitting quantization is Q3_K_S, which uses 6.8 GB.

What speed will GLM-4 9B run at on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB?

On RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB, GLM-4 9B achieves approximately 18.5 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 10457ms using Q3_K_S quantization.

Can RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB run GLM-4 9B for coding?

For coding workloads, GLM-4 9B on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB receives a F grade with 11.7 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can GLM-4 9B use on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB?

On RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB, GLM-4 9B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context at Q3_K_S quantization. The model's official context limit is 128K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if GLM-4 9B feels slow on RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB?

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.

See all results for RTX 4050 Laptop 6GB See all hardware for GLM-4 9B

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