Qwen3 · Apache-2.0 · HF: Qwen/Qwen3-14B
Qwen3 14B — VRAM, KV Cache & Hardware Matrix
Serverless API Rate
$0.12 in / $0.24 out per 1M
Parameters
14.8B Dense
Attention
GQA (8 KV / 40 Q)
Layers × Hidden
40 × 5120
Max Native Context
40k tokens
MoE Experts
N/A (Dense)
Quantization Memory Footprint
| Quantization | BPW | Weights Only | Total @ 8k Ctx | Total @ 32k Ctx | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | 16.00 | 28.12 GiB | 30.82 GiB | 34.57 GiB | Lossless Reference |
| Q8_0 | 8.50 | 14.94 GiB | 17.64 GiB | 21.39 GiB | Near-Lossless |
| Q6_K | 6.57 | 11.55 GiB | 14.25 GiB | 18.00 GiB | High Precision |
| Q5_K_M | 5.69 | 10.00 GiB | 12.70 GiB | 16.45 GiB | Balanced High |
| Q4_K_M | 4.85 | 8.52 GiB | 11.23 GiB | 14.98 GiB | Recommended 4-bit |
| MLX_4BIT | 4.50 | 7.91 GiB | 10.61 GiB | 14.36 GiB | Apple Silicon Optimized |
| IQ4_XS | 4.25 | 7.47 GiB | 10.17 GiB | 13.92 GiB | Compact 4-bit |
| Q3_K_M | 3.91 | 6.87 GiB | 9.57 GiB | 13.32 GiB | Aggressive Compression |
Hardware Compatibility & Speed Leaderboard (Q4_K_M @ 32k Context)
| Hardware | Status | Total / Limit | Decode | TTFT (4k) | Max Safe Ctx | Inspect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud NVIDIA H200 SXM (141 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 140.4 GiB | 277.7 tok/s | 0.21s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Cloud NVIDIA H100 SXM (80 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 79.4 GiB | 193.8 tok/s | 0.21s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Cloud NVIDIA A100 SXM (80 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 79.4 GiB | 115.1 tok/s | 0.64s | 40k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 95.0 GiB | 103.7 tok/s | 0.79s | 40k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX 5090 (32 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 31.0 GiB | 101.2 tok/s | 0.98s | 40k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 23.0 GiB | 56.9 tok/s | 1.23s | 40k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24 GB Used) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 23.0 GiB | 51.6 tok/s | 2.94s | 40k | Simulate → |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 23.0 GiB | 50.3 tok/s | 2.04s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Cloud NVIDIA L40S (48 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 47.4 GiB | 48.8 tok/s | 0.57s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra (256 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 199.7 GiB | 44.0 tok/s | 3.84s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra (512 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 399.4 GiB | 44.0 tok/s | 3.84s | 40k | Simulate → |
| 2x NVIDIA RTX 3090 Rig (48 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 15.0 / 46.6 GiB | 43.3 tok/s | 3.62s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Studio M2 Ultra (192 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 149.8 GiB | 43.0 tok/s | 4.24s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Studio M4 Max (64 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 49.9 GiB | 28.9 tok/s | 5.84s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Studio M4 Max (128 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 99.8 GiB | 28.9 tok/s | 5.84s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple MacBook Pro M3 Max (64 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 49.9 GiB | 20.9 tok/s | 7.81s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple MacBook Pro M3 Max (128 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 99.8 GiB | 20.9 tok/s | 7.81s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Mini M4 Pro (48 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 37.4 GiB | 13.9 tok/s | 12.04s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Mini M4 Pro (64 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 49.9 GiB | 13.9 tok/s | 12.04s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Strix Halo (128 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 96.0 GiB | 13.1 tok/s | 4.35s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Strix Halo (64 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 48.0 GiB | 13.1 tok/s | 4.35s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Mini M4 (24 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 18.0 GiB | 6.0 tok/s | 26.64s | 40k | Simulate → |
| Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Mini-PC (64 GB) | COMFORTABLE | 14.8 / 48.0 GiB | 5.8 tok/s | 12.41s | 40k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX 5080 (16 GB) | TIGHT | 15.0 / 15.0 GiB | 54.2 tok/s | 1.81s | 32k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti (16 GB) | TIGHT | 15.0 / 15.0 GiB | 50.6 tok/s | 2.31s | 32k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti (16 GB) | TIGHT | 15.0 / 15.0 GiB | 24.7 tok/s | 4.39s | 32k | Simulate → |
| NVIDIA RTX 3060 (12 GB) | OOM | 15.0 / 11.0 GiB | OOM | — | 7k | Simulate → |
| Apple Mac Mini M4 (16 GB) | OOM | 14.8 / 10.0 GiB | OOM | — | 11k | Simulate → |
Interactive Qwen3 14B Simulator
14.8B Dense · GQA
1792 GB/s · 250 TFLOPS
3. Weight Quantization
4.85 bpw
4. KV Cache
32,768 tok
Compute Roofline
COMFORTABLE FIT Memory-Bandwidth Bound
Max Safe Ctx: 40k
Memory Allocation Footprint 14.98 / 95.00 GiB usable
Weights: 8.52 GiB
KV Cache: 5.00 GiB
Overhead: 1.45 GiB
Headroom: 80.02 GiB
Decode Speed
103.7
tok/s (batch=1)
Prefill Speed
5435
prompt tok/s
TTFT Latency
0.79s
for 4,096 tok
Active Params
14.8B
of 14.8B total
llama.cpp Server Command
llama-server -hf Qwen/Qwen3-14B:Q4_K_M -ngl 99 -fa on -c 32768 --port 8080| Context | KV Cache | Total VRAM | Decode | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4k | 0.63 GiB | 10.25 GiB | 153.2 tok/s | COMFORTABLE |
| 8k | 1.25 GiB | 11.23 GiB | 143.4 tok/s | COMFORTABLE |
| 16k | 2.50 GiB | 12.48 GiB | 127.2 tok/s | COMFORTABLE |
| 32k | 5.00 GiB | 14.98 GiB | 103.7 tok/s | COMFORTABLE |
Buy-vs-Cloud-vs-API Monthly TCO Break-Even
USE SERVERLESS APIOwn Hardware/mo
$163.64
42.8h active + power
Cloud GPU/mo
$90.95
@$1.85/hr spot/pod
Serverless API/mo
$9.60
API cheaper
Recommended Hardware & Cloud Deployment
Contextual to fit statusEngineering FAQ — Qwen3 14B
How much VRAM does Qwen3 14B require in Q4_K_M?
Qwen3 14B weights occupy 8.52 GiB in Q4_K_M. Including 32k FP16 KV cache and runtime buffers, total memory is 14.98 GiB.
What is the cheapest local hardware that runs Qwen3 14B?
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96 GB) (96 GB) runs Qwen3 14B Q4_K_M at ~103.7 tok/s decode and 0.79s TTFT.
How does Qwen3 14B scale KV cache at long context?
Qwen3 14B uses GQA with 8 KV heads across 40 layers (128 head_dim).