NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 — Local LLM Performance & Compatibility

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 12, 2026

12 GB VRAM handles 7–8B models well and some 13B models with aggressive Q4 quantization. Great everyday AI card.

Technical Specifications

VRAM12 GB
Memory Bandwidth504 GB/s
TDP200 W
ArchitectureAda Lovelace AD104
Release Year2023
MSRP at Launch$599
Inference Speed (Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M)50–96 tok/s (estimated)
Inference Speed (Llama 3.3 70B Q4_K_M)Does not fit — needs ~44 GB of 12 GB usable
Buy This HardwareNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 12GB — 12 GB VRAM · 200 W board powerDeploy in the Cloud NowRTX 4090 on RunPod — from $0.34/hr · rate checked 2026-07

or compare on Vast.ai from $0.35/hr (typical low · varies)

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 12GB
12 GB VRAM · 200 W board power
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LLMs Compatible with 12 GB VRAM

All models below run comfortably in 12 GB VRAM with Q4_K_M quantization.

Llama 3.1 FamilyLlama 3.1 8B Instruct · 6 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run llama3.1
Llama 3.2 FamilyLlama 3.2 11B Vision Instruct · 7 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · llama-3-2
Qwen 2.5 FamilyQwen 2.5 14B Instruct · 9 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run qwen2.5:14b
Gemma 3Gemma 3 12B Instruct · 8 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run gemma3:12b
Phi-4 MiniPhi-4 Mini (3.8B) · 3 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run phi4-mini
Mistral FamilyMistral NeMo 12B · 8 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run mistral-nemo
SmolLM2SmolLM2 1.7B Instruct · 2 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run smollm2:1.7b

Best Use Cases

Quick Start with Ollama

Install Ollama then run the recommended model for this GPU:

ollama run llama3.1:8b

FAQ

Can the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 run local LLMs?

Yes — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has 12 GB VRAM and runs 12 GB VRAM handles 7–8B models well and some 13B models with aggressive Q4 quantization. Great everyday AI card.

How fast is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 for AI inference?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is estimated to run Llama 3.1 8B at 50–96 tok/s with Q4_K_M quantization. Llama 3.3 70B does not fit: it needs about 44 GB against 12 GB usable. These are modelled estimates, not measurements — see /en/methodology.

What LLMs can I run on 12 GB VRAM?

With 12 GB you can run: Llama 3.1 Family, Llama 3.2 Family, Qwen 2.5 Family, Gemma 3, Phi-4 Mini. Use Ollama for the easiest setup: ollama run llama3.1:8b.

Can I Run It? — NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

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