can it run
Comfortably. 11GB of memory against a 4GB working set leaves headroom for context, the OS, and anything else you're running.
weights 2.5GB + KV cache 0.5GB at 4k context vs ~11GB usable → full. 3.0 GB needed of 11 GB usable — headroom for context
computed roofline: 484 GB/s × 0.28–0.50 efficiency window / 2.5GB (Q4_K_M) — bands, never points. Small models (under ~4.5B) run BELOW these bands — kernel-launch overhead keeps them from saturating bandwidth (measured against community medians, 09-06).
| model file | 2.5GB (GGUF Q4_K_M) |
| minimum memory | 4GB working set |
| this machine | 11GB GDDR5X, 484 GB/s |
| params | mini 3.8B |
| license | mit |
| price | $275 |
easy run: ollama pull phi4-mini
runs with: ollama · llama.cpp · koboldcpp · lm studio
→ every model the GTX 1080 Ti (11GB, used) can run — full list
→ RTX 3090 (24GB, used) — upgrade path machine