How much VRAM does Qwen3.5 9B need?

Qwen3.5 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 8.9 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Qwen3.5 9B?

The recommended quantization for Qwen3.5 9B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

Can it run?

Can RTX 3000 Ada Laptop 8GB run Qwen3.5 9B?

Q: Can RTX 3000 Ada Laptop 8GB run Qwen3.5 9B?

Yes, RTX 3000 Ada Laptop 8GB can run Qwen3.5 9B with a C grade (Very compromised). Expected decode speed: 34.5 tok/s.

CUsable

Very compromised

Using Q4_K_M in Ollama

Capabilities:

Fit status

Very compromised

Decode

34.5 tok/s

TTFT

5606 ms

Safe context

14K

Memory

8.9 GB / 8.0 GB

Offload

10%

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache1.4 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom0.8 GB

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	38.3 tok/s	7353 ms	25K
Chat	C	Runs with offload (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM)	37.2 tok/s	2842 ms	8K
Coding	C	Very compromised	34.5 tok/s	5606 ms	14K
RAG	F	Too heavy	38.3 tok/s	9192 ms	25K
Reasoning	C	Very compromised (needs ~0.6 GB host RAM)	35.0 tok/s	6534 ms

Quantization options

How Qwen3.5 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3000 Ada Laptop 8GB (8.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	D39
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	C41
NVFP4Best for your GPU

Get started

HuggingFace

huggingface-cli download hf-unsloth--qwen3-5-9b-gguf

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Qwen3.5 9B well

Intel Arc B580 12GBBudget pick

C39.9 tok/s decode

~$249 MSRP

RTX 3060 12GBBest value

C43.3 tok/s decode

~$329 MSRP

RTX 3080 12GBBiggest leap

B126.3 tok/s decode

~$799 MSRP

RTX 3080 Ti 12GBNVIDIA upgrade

B122.9 tok/s decode

~$1,199 MSRP

See all results for RTX 3000 Ada Laptop 8GB See all hardware for Qwen3.5 9B