Q: How fast is gpt-oss 120B MoE on the CPU-only (DDR4-3200 dual-channel)?

~2.4–3.7 tok/s (active-expert estimate) on the CPU-only (DDR4-3200 dual-channel). computed roofline: 51.2 GB/s × 0.45–0.70 efficiency window / 9.8GB (Q4_K_M) — bands, never points. MoE: file is 65GB (that decides fit) but only ~18B of experts activate per token (~9.8GB streamed) — band below is the active-expert estimate, optimistic; community MoE rows run several× the naive bandwidth math

Question 1

Can the CPU-only (DDR4-3200 dual-channel) run gpt-oss 120B MoE?

Accepted Answer

gpt-oss 120B MoE needs about 65.28GB working set (weights 65GB + KV cache 0.28GB at 4k context). The CPU-only (DDR4-3200 dual-channel) offers ~14GB usable — verdict: no. 65.3 GB vs 14 GB usable — does not fit

Question 2

How fast is gpt-oss 120B MoE on the CPU-only (DDR4-3200 dual-channel)?

Accepted Answer

~2.4–3.7 tok/s (active-expert estimate)

computed roofline: 51.2 GB/s × 0.45–0.70 efficiency window / 9.8GB (Q4_K_M) — bands, never points.

MoE: file is 65GB (that decides fit) but only ~18B of experts activate per token (~9.8GB streamed) — band below is the active-expert estimate, optimistic; community MoE rows run several× the naive bandwidth math

Question 3

What should I run gpt-oss 120B MoE on instead?

Accepted Answer

NIMO AI Mini PC (128GB) runs it fully ($1999).

Can the CPU-only (DDR4-3200 dual-channel) run gpt-oss 120B MoE?

Run gpt-oss 120B MoE on instead