Q: How fast is qwen3 235B-A22B MoE on the CPU-only (DDR5 tuned / 4-channel)?

~6.1–9.4 tok/s (active-expert estimate) on the CPU-only (DDR5 tuned / 4-channel). computed roofline: 179.2 GB/s × 0.45–0.70 efficiency window / 13.3GB (Q4_K_M) — bands, never points. MoE: file is 142GB (that decides fit) but only ~22B of experts activate per token (~13.3GB streamed) — band below is the active-expert estimate, optimistic; community MoE rows run several× the naive bandwidth math

Question 1

Can the CPU-only (DDR5 tuned / 4-channel) run qwen3 235B-A22B MoE?

Accepted Answer

qwen3 235B-A22B MoE needs about 142.73GB working set (weights 142GB + KV cache 0.73GB at 4k context). The CPU-only (DDR5 tuned / 4-channel) offers ~30GB usable — verdict: no. 142.7 GB vs 30 GB usable — does not fit

Question 2

How fast is qwen3 235B-A22B MoE on the CPU-only (DDR5 tuned / 4-channel)?

Accepted Answer

~6.1–9.4 tok/s (active-expert estimate)

computed roofline: 179.2 GB/s × 0.45–0.70 efficiency window / 13.3GB (Q4_K_M) — bands, never points.

MoE: file is 142GB (that decides fit) but only ~22B of experts activate per token (~13.3GB streamed) — band below is the active-expert estimate, optimistic; community MoE rows run several× the naive bandwidth math

Question 3

What should I run qwen3 235B-A22B MoE on instead?

Accepted Answer

ASUS ExpertCenter Pro ET900N G3 (GB300) runs it fully ($60000).

Can the CPU-only (DDR5 tuned / 4-channel) run qwen3 235B-A22B MoE?

Run qwen3 235B-A22B MoE on instead