Qwen3.5 35B-A3B hardware requirements
What is Qwen3.5 35B-A3B?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is a mixture-of-experts model that Alibaba Cloud's Qwen team released in February 2026, with about 35B parameters in total and about 3B active per token. It reads images and video as well as text, thinks before answering by default, and its model card highlights coding, agents and support for 201 languages and dialects. The card names Qwen3.5-Flash on Alibaba Cloud as its hosted version.
What to know before running Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is a mixture-of-experts model that uses only about 3B of its parameters per token. At Q4_K_M it needs 22.3 GB with an 8k context, which just fits on a 24GB card: the GeForce RTX 3090 runs it great with little room left. On 8GB to 16GB cards the experts that do not fit stay in system RAM, and CanRun expects it to run well on the GeForce RTX 4060 and the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, a theoretical estimate (±30%).
Its attention design keeps the KV cache small, so long contexts are cheap: going from 8k to 128k adds only a few gigabytes, and at 128k it needs 25.9 GB in total. That is more than a 24GB card has free, so the GeForce RTX 3090 moves part of it to system RAM at that length. It thinks before answering by default, which is why CanRun holds it to a 1.5× stricter speed bar. On a Mac, the 48GB Apple M4 Pro runs it great.
About the model
- Parameters
- 35.95B total · 3B active (MoE)
- Attention
- Hybrid attention (only some layers use full attention)
- Max context
- 262,144 tokens
- Released
- 2026-02-24
- Model card
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B on Hugging Face
Other sizes in this series
| Model | Parameters | Baseline quant | Memory needed (8k) | GeForce RTX 4060 | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | GeForce RTX 3090 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.5 4B | 4.66B | Q4_K_M | 3.6 GB | Runs great | Runs great | Runs great |
| Qwen3.5 9B | 9.65B | Q4_K_M | 6.0 GB | Runs great | Runs great | Runs great |
| Qwen3.5 27B | 27.78B | Q4_K_M | 17.2 GB | Runs slowly | Runs slowly | Runs great |
| Qwen3.5 35B-A3Bthis model | 35.95B total · 3B active (MoE) | Q4_K_M | 22.3 GB | Runs well | Runs well | Runs great |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10B | 125.09B total · 10B active (MoE) | Q4_K_M | 76.6 GB | Won't run | Won't run | Won't run |
GGUF files
| Quant | File size | Quality | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|
| UD-Q2_K_XL | 12.57 GB | Heavy loss | Community GGUF · unsloth |
| IQ4_XS | 18.17 GB | Good balance | Community GGUF · unsloth |
| Q4_K_Mbaseline | 22.63 GB | Good balance | Community GGUF · unsloth |
| Q8_0 | 37.80 GB | Near-lossless | Community GGUF · unsloth |
Some repositories publish only Unsloth Dynamic (UD) variants; sizes are those of the file you would download.
Memory needed by quant and context
| Quant | 4k | 8k | 16k | 32k | 64k | 128k | 256k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UD-Q2_K_XL | 12.5 | 12.6 | 12.9 | 13.4 | 14.3 | 16.3 | 20.2 |
| IQ4_XS | 17.8 | 17.9 | 18.2 | 18.7 | 19.6 | 21.6 | 25.5 |
| Q4_K_M | 22.2 | 22.3 | 22.5 | 23.0 | 24.0 | 25.9 | 29.8 |
| Q8_0 | 37.0 | 37.1 | 37.3 | 37.8 | 38.8 | 40.7 | 44.6 |
Which GPUs can run Qwen3.5 35B-A3B?
How to read the verdicts
- Runs great
- Fully on the GPU at 20 tok/s or more
- Runs well
- Fully on the GPU at 8–20 tok/s; MoE experts in system RAM at 20 tok/s or more; or at least 90% on the GPU at 8 tok/s or more
- Runs slowly
- 2–8 tok/s; CPU-only; less than 90% on the GPU; or MoE experts in system RAM below 20 tok/s
- Won't run
- Does not fit, or under 2 tok/s
Filter this list by budget, type and context in the calculator
Scroll sideways to see every column.
| Hardware | Verdict | Speed | Quant | Memory | Runs as | Context | Notes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 5090 | est. 213.4 tok/s170.7–256.0calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 32.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 256k | — | $4,200 street (as of 2026-08-09) | |
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell | Runs great | est. 213.4 tok/s170.7–256.0calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 96.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 256k | — | — |
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q | Runs great | est. 213.4 tok/s170.7–256.0calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 96.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 256k | — | — |
| GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | Runs great | est. 155.9 tok/s124.7–187.1calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 24.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 32k | — | $1,999 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 4090 | est. 155.9 tok/s124.7–187.1calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 24.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 32k | — | $2,755 street (as of 2026-08-09) | |
| GeForce RTX 3090 | est. 148.8 tok/s119.1–178.6calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 24.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 32k | — | $1,050 street (as of 2026-08-09) | |
| GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop | Runs great | est. 144.7 tok/s115.8–173.7calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 24.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 32k | — | — |
| Apple M5 Ultra · 96 GB | Runs great | est. 116.8 tok/s93.5–140.2calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 67.2 GB | Unified memory | up to 256k | — | — |
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX | Runs great | est. 113.9 tok/s91.1–136.7calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.9 / 24.0 GB | Full GPU | up to 32k | — | $999 launch MSRP |
| Apple M5 Max (40-core GPU) · 48 GB | Runs great | est. 109.8 tok/s87.8–131.7calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 33.6 GB | Unified memory | up to 256k | — | — |
| Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) · 48 GB | Runs great | est. 101.5 tok/s81.2–121.8calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 33.6 GB | Unified memory | up to 256k | — | — |
| Apple M3 Ultra · 96 GB | Runs great | est. 94.8 tok/s75.8–113.8calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 67.2 GB | Unified memory | up to 256k | — | — |
| Apple M2 Ultra · 64 GB | Runs great | est. 93.5 tok/s74.8–112.3calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 44.8 GB | Unified memory | up to 256k | — | — |
| Apple M5 Max (32-core GPU) · 36 GB | Runs great | est. 90.0 tok/s72.0–108.0calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 25.2 GB | Unified memory | up to 64k | — | — |
| Apple M4 Max (32-core GPU) · 36 GB | Runs great | est. 82.8 tok/s66.2–99.3calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 25.2 GB | Unified memory | up to 64k | — | — |
| Apple M5 Pro · 48 GB | Runs great | est. 66.3 tok/s53.0–79.5calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 33.6 GB | Unified memory | up to 128k | — | — |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo) · 64 GB | Runs great | 64.8 tok/s8k estimate 56.0 tok/s (44.8–67.2, calibrated estimate ±20%)measured (1 run, 512 context) | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 44.8 GB | Unified memory | up to 128k | — | $1,999 launch MSRP (128 GB) |
| NVIDIA DGX Spark · 128 GB | Runs great | est. 61.9 tok/s49.5–74.2calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 116.9 GB | Unified memory | up to 128k | — | $3,999 launch MSRP (128 GB) |
| Apple M4 Pro · 48 GB | est. 60.3 tok/s48.3–72.4calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 23.4 / 33.6 GB | Unified memory | up to 128k | — | — | |
| GeForce RTX 5080 | Runs well | est. 85.5 tok/s59.8–111.1theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $1,256 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| Radeon RX 7900 XT | Runs well | est. 85.1 tok/s59.6–110.6theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 19.5 / 20.0 GB + 4.5 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $899 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | Runs well | est. 83.5 tok/s58.5–108.6theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $949 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop | Runs well | est. 83.5 tok/s58.5–108.6theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| — |
| GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Runs well | est. 77.8 tok/s54.5–101.2theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $999 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 4080 | Runs well | est. 77.0 tok/s53.9–100.1theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $1,199 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super | Runs well | est. 75.1 tok/s52.5–97.6theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $799 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop | Runs well | est. 70.3 tok/s49.2–91.4theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| — |
| GeForce RTX 3080 12GB | Runs well | est. 69.3 tok/s48.5–90.1theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $799 launch MSRP |
| Radeon RX 9070 | Runs well | est. 64.1 tok/s44.9–83.3theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $639 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| Radeon RX 9070 XT | Runs well | est. 64.1 tok/s44.9–83.3theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $689 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| Radeon RX 7800 XT | Runs well | est. 63.4 tok/s44.4–82.4theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $499 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 5070 | est. 63.3 tok/s44.3–82.3theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $629 street (as of 2026-08-09) | |
| GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop | Runs well | est. 63.3 tok/s44.3–82.3theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| — |
| GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | est. 62.4 tok/s43.7–81.1theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $569 street (as of 2026-08-09) | |
| GeForce RTX 3080 10GB | Runs well | est. 60.8 tok/s42.6–79.1theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 9.2 / 10.0 GB + 14.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $699 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | Runs well | est. 59.3 tok/s41.5–77.1theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 10.2 / 11.0 GB + 13.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 256k |
| $999 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 4070 | est. 57.1 tok/s40.0–74.3theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $599 launch MSRP | |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Super | Runs well | est. 57.1 tok/s40.0–74.3theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $599 launch MSRP |
| GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | Runs well | est. 54.4 tok/s38.1–70.7theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 10.2 / 11.0 GB + 13.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $699 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop | Runs well | est. 53.6 tok/s37.5–69.7theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| — |
| GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | est. 49.4 tok/s34.6–64.2theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $250 street (as of 2026-08-09) | |
| GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | Runs well | est. 48.7 tok/s34.1–63.3theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 64k |
| $499 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 3070 | Runs well | est. 48.3 tok/s33.8–62.8theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $499 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 5060 | Runs well | est. 48.3 tok/s33.8–62.8theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $339 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB | Runs well | est. 48.3 tok/s33.8–62.8theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $429 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB | Runs well | est. 48.1 tok/s33.6–62.5theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 15.1 / 16.0 GB + 8.9 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 128k |
| $449 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| Intel Arc B580 | Runs well | est. 45.2 tok/s31.6–58.7theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 11.2 / 12.0 GB + 12.8 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 64k |
| $290 street (as of 2026-08-09) |
| GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB | Runs well | est. 40.4 tok/s28.3–52.5theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 64k |
| $399 launch MSRP |
| GeForce RTX 4060 | est. 39.3 tok/s27.5–51.1theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 64k |
| $299 launch MSRP | |
| GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop | Runs well | est. 38.2 tok/s26.7–49.6theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 32k |
| — |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop | Runs well | est. 38.2 tok/s26.7–49.6theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 32k |
| — |
| GeForce RTX 3050 8GB | Runs well | est. 35.7 tok/s25.0–46.4theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 7.3 / 8.0 GB + 16.7 GB RAM | MoE experts in RAM | up to 32k |
| $249 launch MSRP |
| Apple M6 · 32 GB | Runs slowly | est. 35.7 tok/s25.0–46.4theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 22.8 GB RAM | CPU only | up to 256k |
| — |
| Apple M5 · 32 GB | Runs slowly | est. 32.1 tok/s22.5–41.8theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 22.8 GB RAM | CPU only | up to 256k |
| — |
| Apple M4 · 32 GB | Runs slowlyQwen3.5 35B-A3B verdict on the Apple M4 | est. 25.1 tok/s17.6–32.6theoretical estimate ±30% | Q4_K_M | 22.8 GB RAM | CPU only | up to 256k |
| — |
| DDR5-6000 dual-channel CPU · 32 GB | Runs slowly | est. 20.1 tok/s16.1–24.1calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.8 GB RAM | CPU only | up to 256k |
| — |
| DDR5-5600 dual-channel CPU · 32 GB | Runs slowly | est. 18.7 tok/s15.0–22.5calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.8 GB RAM | CPU only | up to 256k |
| — |
| DDR4-3200 dual-channel CPU · 32 GB | Runs slowly | est. 10.7 tok/s8.6–12.8calibrated estimate ±20% | Q4_K_M | 22.8 GB RAM | CPU only | up to 256k | — | — |
Models with a thinking mode spend extra tokens thinking, so their speed thresholds are 1.5× stricter (30 / 12 / 3 tok/s). With thinking turned off, a model may do one grade better.
Cheapest GPUs that run it
- Runs greatGeForce RTX 3090$1,050 street (as of 2026-08-09), est. 148.8 tok/s (119.1–178.6, calibrated estimate ±20%).
- Runs wellGeForce RTX 3060 12GB$250 street (as of 2026-08-09), est. 49.4 tok/s (34.6–64.2, theoretical estimate ±30%).
Measured results for Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
Public benchmarks we calibrate against. Their conditions (context, backend, flags) can differ from the estimates above.
| Hardware | Quant | Backend | Context | Prompt (tok/s) | Generation (tok/s) | Flags | Source | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA DGX Spark | Q8_0 | llama.cpp | 2k | 2,572.0 | 49.2 | CUDA | github.com | 2026-03-12 |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo) | Q4_K_M | llama.cpp | 512 | 1,077.0 | 64.8 | Vulkan | github.com | 2026-04-26 |
Frequently asked questions
How much VRAM does Qwen3.5 35B-A3B need?
At Q4_K_M the file is 22.63 GB; with 8k context a graphics card needs about 22.3 GB (weights 21.54 GB, KV cache 0.2 GB, compute buffer 0.6 GB). The smallest tracked file (UD-Q2_K_XL (heavy quality loss)) needs about 12.6 GB. Part of the file stays off the graphics card: llama.cpp keeps the input embedding table in system RAM and loads the MTP block only when MTP is turned on. A Mac counts the whole file, so it needs a little more.
What is the cheapest GPU that runs Qwen3.5 35B-A3B well?
Cheapest that runs it great: GeForce RTX 3090 at $1,050 (street price as of 2026-08-09), est. 148.8 tok/s (119.1–178.6, calibrated estimate ±20%). Cheaper and still Runs well: GeForce RTX 3060 12GB at $250 (street price as of 2026-08-09), est. 49.4 tok/s (34.6–64.2, theoretical estimate ±30%).
Can Qwen3.5 35B-A3B run on an 8 GB, 16 GB or 24 GB GPU?
At Q4_K_M with 8k context: GeForce RTX 4060 — Runs well, est. 39.3 tok/s (27.5–51.1, theoretical estimate ±30%); GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB — Runs well, est. 62.4 tok/s (43.7–81.1, theoretical estimate ±30%); GeForce RTX 3090 — Runs great, est. 148.8 tok/s (119.1–178.6, calibrated estimate ±20%).
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.