local intelligence

will it local

Best local LLMs for the GTX 970M

3GB · Maxwell (laptop)

3GB VRAM wall: 7B Q4 does not fit on-GPU; 3B Q4 fits with modest context Maxwell dropped from current CUDA toolkits — Vulkan backend or old builds 6GB variant exists; many laptops shipped 3GB — check before buying used

⚠ Laptop part — mobile clocks and thermals run below desktop sibling speeds; treat the band as optimistic for sustained load.

explore the full catalogupgrade paths with live prices · what fits on each machine

Speed

computed band 6.6-12.0 tok/s for 8B Q4_K_M (roofline, 120.3 GB/s VRAM)

Effective decode window: 0.28–0.50 of 120.3 GB/s nominal → ~34–60 GB/s effective (llama.cpp decode, Q4_K_M basis; arch window, community-calibrated)

What fits (computed)

13b-q4 no 14.6 GB vs 3 GB usable — does not fit

3b-q4 tight 2.8 of 3 GB usable — keep context modest

4b-q4 offload-partial 3.7 GB vs 3 GB usable — partial CPU offload, expect large speed loss

8b-q4 no 6.1 GB vs 3 GB usable — does not fit

Cited community benches

no single-card bench published — band is computed (see notes)

Runs fully in memory (machine alternatives)

Nominal bandwidth: 120.3 GB/s — see the effective decode window above

qwen3:0.6b on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) 0.6B · 0.6GB · needs ~1GB (4k ctx)

qwen3:1.7b on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) 1.7B · 1.4GB · needs ~1.8GB (4k ctx)

llama3.2:1b on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) 1B · 1.3GB · needs ~1.4GB (4k ctx)

llama3.2:3b on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) 3B · 2.0GB · needs ~2.4GB (4k ctx)

gemma3:1b on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) 1B · 1.0GB · needs ~1.1GB (4k ctx)

phi4:mini on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) mini 3.8B · 2.5GB · needs ~3GB (4k ctx)

whisper:tiny on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) tiny · 0.1GB · needs ~2.1GB (4k ctx)

whisper on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) base · 0.3GB · needs ~2.3GB (4k ctx)

whisper:small on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) small · 0.9GB · needs ~2.9GB (4k ctx)

kokoro:82m on Raspberry Pi 5 + AI Kit (Hailo-8L) ($110) 82M · 0.3GB · needs ~2.3GB (4k ctx)

Borderline — runs, but offloads

→ qwen3:4b 4B — 3.2 of 3 GB usable — barely over; real with q8 KV cache (halves KV) or shorter context

→ moondream:2b 2B — 3.7 GB vs 3 GB usable — partial CPU offload, expect large speed loss

Gotchas

⚠ 3GB VRAM wall: 7B Q4 does not fit on-GPU; 3B Q4 fits with modest context

⚠ Maxwell dropped from current CUDA toolkits — Vulkan backend or old builds

⚠ 6GB variant exists; many laptops shipped 3GB — check before buying used

Where to go next

2026-09-18 · ← full hardware catalog · fit = working set vs VRAM · speeds are community-reported, cited in our knowledge base