Yes — Phi-4 Mini runs on 8 GB laptop
Phi-4 Mini (3.8B) needs 3.1GB VRAM at Q5 vs your 8GB VRAM. Estimated ~7–10 tok/s (RAM offload).
CPU-friendly 3.8B with 128k context. Fine default for 8 GB RAM machines.
| quant | weights | + KV 8k | fits 0GB? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 | 2.5GB | ~2.7GB | × tight/no |
| Q5 | 3.1GB | ~3.3GB | × tight/no |
| Q8 | 4.2GB | ~4.4GB | × tight/no |
| FP16 | 7.6GB | ~7.8GB | × tight/no |
File size ≠ runtime. KV grows with context — halve to 4k/2k if long chats OOM. Leave 1–2GB free.
Can Phi-4 Mini run on 8 GB laptop?
Phi-4 Mini (3.8B) needs 3.1GB VRAM at Q5 vs your 8GB VRAM. Estimated ~7–10 tok/s (RAM offload). Model context 128k. Compare with all models or re-check with your exact specs on the bench.
Unload with ollama stop, cap layers --num-gpu 28, cut context to 2k. See the OOM fixer on the homepage.
Start Q5. Bigger model at Q4 beats smaller at Q8. Only go Q8 if 2GB+ headroom remains.
About ~7–10 tok/s (RAM offload) when 100% on GPU. Any CPU offload drops speed 5–20× — check ollama ps.
Yes — MIT allows commercial use.