Can HelpingAI 15B i1 run on RTX 4070 12GB?

BARELY — Tight on Memory

D39Poor
Estimated from fit model

HelpingAI 15B i1 needs ~13.0 GB VRAM. RTX 4070 12GB has 12.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~27 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: MediumStack: StandardBottleneck: Host offload
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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.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) 13.0 GB, 26.7 tok/s, Very compromised (needs ~0.7 GB host RAM)
13.0 GB required12.0 GB available
108% VRAM needed

1.0 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Very compromised (needs ~0.7 GB host RAM)

Decode

26.7 tok/s

TTFT

7240 ms

Safe context

7K

Memory

13.0 GB / 12.0 GB

Offload

10%

Memory breakdown

Weights9.2 GB
KV Cache1.8 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom1.2 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsHelpingAI 15B i1 on RTX 4070 12GB
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: 26.7 tok/s decode · 7.2s TTFT (warm) · 67 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 0.7 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatCRuns with offload (needs ~0.1 GB host RAM)31.0 tok/s3408 ms7K
CodingDVery compromised (needs ~0.7 GB host RAM)26.7 tok/s7240 ms7K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy20.5 tok/s13752 ms7K
ReasoningDVery compromised (needs ~0.7 GB host RAM)26.7 tok/s8557 ms7K
RAGFToo heavy20.5 tok/s17189 ms7K

Inference speed

HelpingAI 15B i1 inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for HelpingAI 15B i1 at Q4_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 / MacMemoryQuantSpeed (tok/s)Fits?
NVIDIARTX 5090 32GB
32 GBQ4_K_M131.2Fits
NVIDIARTX 4090 24GB
24 GBQ4_K_M83.7Fits
RX 7900 XTX 24GB
24 GBQ4_K_M75.5Fits
NVIDIARTX 3090 24GB
24 GBQ4_K_M71.6Fits
NVIDIARTX 4080 Super 16GB
16 GBQ4_K_M68.3Tight
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB
256 GBQ4_K_M60.9Fits
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB
128 GBQ4_K_M50.7Fits
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB
128 GBQ4_K_M48.1Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
128 GBQ4_K_M34.7Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB
64 GBQ4_K_M34.7Fits
NVIDIARTX 4070 12GB
12 GBQ4_K_M26.7Heavy offload
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB
64 GBQ4_K_M26.2Fits
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
64 GBQ4_K_M24.0Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB
48 GBQ4_K_M21.2Fits
NVIDIARTX 3060 12GB
12 GBQ4_K_M15.7Heavy offload
NVIDIARTX 4060 8GB
8 GBQ4_K_M5.9Too 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.

Quantization options

How HelpingAI 15B i1 (15B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4070 12GB (12.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
5.9 GB
LowC52
Q3_K_S
3
7.4 GB
LowC51
NVFP4Best for your GPU
4
8.4 GB
MediumC51
Q4_K_M
4
9.2 GB
MediumF0
Q5_K_M
5
10.8 GB
HighF0
Q6_K
6
12.3 GB
HighF0
Q8_0
8
16.1 GB
Very HighF0
F16
16
30.7 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run HelpingAI 15B i1 on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-mradermacher--helpingai-15b-i1-gguf && lms server start

アップグレードオプション

HelpingAI 15B i1を快適に動かすハードウェア

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 4070 12GB run HelpingAI 15B i1?

Yes, RTX 4070 12GB can run HelpingAI 15B i1 with a D grade (Very compromised (needs ~0.7 GB host RAM)). Expected decode speed: 26.7 tok/s.

How much VRAM does HelpingAI 15B i1 need?

HelpingAI 15B i1 (15B parameters) requires approximately 13.0 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for HelpingAI 15B i1?

The recommended quantization for HelpingAI 15B i1 is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will HelpingAI 15B i1 run at on RTX 4070 12GB?

On RTX 4070 12GB, HelpingAI 15B i1 achieves approximately 26.7 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 7240ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 4070 12GB run HelpingAI 15B i1 for coding?

For coding workloads, HelpingAI 15B i1 on RTX 4070 12GB receives a D grade with 26.7 tok/s and 7K context.

What context window can HelpingAI 15B i1 use on RTX 4070 12GB?

On RTX 4070 12GB, HelpingAI 15B i1 can safely use up to 7K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if HelpingAI 15B i1 feels slow on RTX 4070 12GB?

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 4070 12GBSee all hardware for HelpingAI 15B i1
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