CanRun

Can I run Qwen3 30B-A3B (2507) on the GeForce RTX 4070?

Runs wellQ4_K_M keeps attention and the experts of 24 layers on the GPU (11.6 GB) and the remaining experts in 9.0 GB of system RAM: Runs well, est. 46.8 tok/s (32.8–60.9, theoretical estimate ±30%).

12 GB VRAM · 504.0 GB/s · FP16 29.1 TFLOPS. Assumes 32 GB of DDR5-5600 system RAM, Windows with this GPU driving the display, 8k context and an f16 KV cache. The verdict and quant file above stay the same anywhere from 16 to 128 GB of system RAM. The GeForce RTX 4070 Super has the same memory setup (12 GB, 504.0 GB/s), so its generation-speed estimate is the same; only prompt processing differs.

Every quant of Qwen3 30B-A3B (2507) on the GeForce RTX 4070

4 tracked GGUF files, smallest first, at 32 GB of system RAM and 8k context
QuantFile sizeVerdictSpeedMemoryRuns asNotes
Q2_K11.26 GBRuns well
est. 92.3 tok/s64.6–120.0theoretical estimate ±30%
11.6 / 12.0 GB + 1.6 GB RAMMoE experts in RAMNot fully on the GPU — Runs great needs the whole model in GPU memory
IQ4_XS16.38 GBRuns well
est. 54.2 tok/s38.0–70.5theoretical estimate ±30%
11.4 / 12.0 GB + 6.9 GB RAMMoE experts in RAMNot fully on the GPU — Runs great needs the whole model in GPU memory
Q4_K_Mbaseline18.56 GBRuns well
est. 46.8 tok/s32.8–60.9theoretical estimate ±30%
11.6 / 12.0 GB + 9.0 GB RAMMoE experts in RAMNot fully on the GPU — Runs great needs the whole model in GPU memory
Q8_032.48 GBRuns well
est. 23.5 tok/s16.4–30.5theoretical estimate ±30%
11.0 / 12.0 GB + 23.4 GB RAMMoE experts in RAMNot fully on the GPU — Runs great needs the whole model in GPU memory

Where the memory goes at Q4_K_M

Weights, KV cache and compute buffer are the model; the OS reservation is the display driver.
GPU memory
System RAM
Weights
9.6 GB
KV cache
0.8 GB
Compute buffer
0.6 GB
OS reserve
0.6 GB
Free
0.4 GB
Weights in system RAM
9.0 GB

Context length vs. KV cache

KV cache

Memory needed and verdict at Q4_K_M for each context length and KV cache type, with estimated tokens per second.
ContextKV f16KV q8_0KV q4_0
4k
19.3 GBRuns well
est. 50.6 tok/s35.4–65.7theoretical estimate ±30%
19.1 GBRuns well
est. 52.0 tok/s36.4–67.6theoretical estimate ±30%
19.0 GBRuns well
est. 54.0 tok/s37.8–70.2theoretical estimate ±30%
8k
19.8 GBRuns well
est. 46.8 tok/s32.8–60.9theoretical estimate ±30%
19.4 GBRuns well
est. 50.4 tok/s35.3–65.5theoretical estimate ±30%
19.2 GBRuns well
est. 51.9 tok/s36.3–67.4theoretical estimate ±30%
16k
20.6 GBRuns well
est. 40.0 tok/s28.0–52.0theoretical estimate ±30%
19.9 GBRuns well
est. 45.5 tok/s31.9–59.2theoretical estimate ±30%
19.5 GBRuns well
est. 49.1 tok/s34.3–63.8theoretical estimate ±30%
32k
22.4 GBRuns well
est. 31.5 tok/s22.0–40.9theoretical estimate ±30%
20.9 GBRuns well
est. 39.5 tok/s27.7–51.4theoretical estimate ±30%
20.1 GBRuns well
est. 45.2 tok/s31.6–58.8theoretical estimate ±30%
64k
25.9 GBRuns well
est. 22.3 tok/s15.6–28.9theoretical estimate ±30%
22.9 GBRuns well
est. 30.4 tok/s21.3–39.6theoretical estimate ±30%
21.3 GBRuns well
est. 37.7 tok/s26.4–49.0theoretical estimate ±30%
128k
33.0 GBdoes not fit
27.0 GBRuns well
est. 21.0 tok/s14.7–27.4theoretical estimate ±30%
23.7 GBRuns well
est. 29.1 tok/s20.4–37.8theoretical estimate ±30%
256k
47.0 GBdoes not fit
35.1 GBdoes not fit
28.6 GBRuns slowly
est. 19.8 tok/s13.8–25.7theoretical estimate ±30%

S = Runs great · A = Runs well · B = Runs slowly · F = Won't run

At Q4_K_M the verdict stays Runs well up to 64k context with an f16 KV cache, and up to 128k with q8_0.

Estimated speed

Generation
est. 46.8 tok/s (32.8–60.9, theoretical estimate ±30%)
Prompt processing
Prompt-processing estimates only apply when the whole model runs on the GPU.

Why this verdict: Not fully on the GPU — Runs great needs the whole model in GPU memory

Measured on this exact combination

No public measurement for this exact combination yet; the numbers above are estimates.

If this is not enough

How to run it

Commands for the Q4_K_M file. Both tools download from Hugging Face on first run.

File: Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507-Q4_K_M.gguf (18.56 GB) from unsloth/Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507-GGUF.

llama.cpp
llama-server -hf unsloth/Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507-GGUF:Q4_K_M -c 8192 -ngl all --n-cpu-moe 24 -fa on
  • -ngl all loads every layer on the GPU.
  • --n-cpu-moe 24 keeps the experts in the first 24 layers in system RAM; the remaining 24 layers with experts keep them on the GPU. This estimate assumes the same split.
  • If loading fails with an out-of-memory error, raise the value to 25, or to 26 if that isn't enough.
  • llama.cpp b7410 (December 2025) and later split the model in a similar way on their own if you leave out -ngl and --n-cpu-moe.
  • -fa on enables flash attention (needed for KV cache quantization).
  • --cache-type-k q8_0 --cache-type-v q8_0 shrinks the KV cache to 0.43 GB at 8k context.
Ollama

PowerShell (quit the Ollama tray app first):

$env:OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH="8192"; ollama serve
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507-GGUF:Q4_K_M
  • Ollama defaults to 4k context on GPUs under 24 GB. Set OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH when starting the server, or /set parameter num_ctx inside the chat.
  • Ollama 0.30 and later automatically keep part of the experts in system RAM to fit your VRAM. Older versions split whole layers instead, which is much slower.
  • /set parameter num_ctx 8192

Related pages

Frequently asked questions

Can I run Qwen3 30B-A3B (2507) on the GeForce RTX 4070?

Q4_K_M keeps attention and the experts of 24 layers on the GPU (11.6 GB) and the remaining experts in 9.0 GB of system RAM: Runs well, est. 46.8 tok/s (32.8–60.9, theoretical estimate ±30%). Q4_K_M needs 19.8 GB at 8k context; this setup has 11.4 GB of usable memory and 28.0 GB of free system RAM.

How much context can Qwen3 30B-A3B (2507) use on the GeForce RTX 4070?

At Q4_K_M the verdict stays Runs well up to 64k context with an f16 KV cache (6.4 GB of KV) and up to 128k with a q8_0 KV cache (6.9 GB). The model supports up to 256k.

Which quant should I use, and how fast is it?

Q4_K_M (18.56 GB) is the recommended balance: Runs well, est. 46.8 tok/s (32.8–60.9, theoretical estimate ±30%). The largest tracked file that still gets Runs well is Q8_0 (32.48 GB), est. 23.5 tok/s (16.4–30.5, theoretical estimate ±30%).

Speeds are estimates from memory bandwidth, calibrated against public benchmarks, and each one comes with an error band and a confidence label. Real results vary with drivers, backend, context length and thermals.