NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU — Local LLM Performance & Compatibility

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated September 19, 2026

The AD103 die — the same silicon as the desktop RTX 4080, not the desktop 4090. 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus gives 576 GB/s, against the desktop 4090's 1,008 GB/s over 24 GB. Configurable from 80 W to 150 W by the laptop maker, so two machines with the same sticker can differ by a third in throughput.

Technical Specifications

VRAM16 GB
Memory Bandwidth576 GB/s
TDP150 W
ArchitectureAda Lovelace AD103
Release Year2023
MSRP at Launch$0
Inference Speed (Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M)56–107 tok/s (estimated)
Inference Speed (Llama 3.3 70B Q4_K_M)Does not fit — needs ~44 GB of 16 GB usable
Buy This HardwareAMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB — 16 GB VRAM · 160 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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LLMs Compatible with 16 GB VRAM

All models below run comfortably in 16 GB VRAM with Q4_K_M quantization.

Mistral FamilyMistral Small 3 (24B) · 15 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run mistral-small
Magistral SmallMagistral Small 24B · 15 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run magistral:24b
Mistral Small 3.1Mistral Small 3.1 24B · 15 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run mistral-small3.1
Mistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 24B · 15 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run mistral-small:24b
CodestralCodestral 22B · 14 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run codestral:22b
EuroLLMEuroLLM 22B · 14 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · eurollm
InternLM 3InternLM 3 20B Instruct · 13 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run internlm3:20b
StarCoder 2StarCoder 2 15B · 10 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run starcoder2:15b

42 more families also fit 16 GB — browse the full model library.

Best Use Cases

FAQ

Can the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU run local LLMs?

Yes — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU has 16 GB VRAM and runs The AD103 die — the same silicon as the desktop RTX 4080, not the desktop 4090. 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus gives 576 G

How fast is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU for AI inference?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU is estimated to run Llama 3.1 8B at 56–107 tok/s with Q4_K_M quantization. Llama 3.3 70B does not fit: it needs about 44 GB against 16 GB usable. These are modelled estimates, not measurements — see /en/methodology.

What LLMs can I run on 16 GB VRAM?

With 16 GB you can run: Mistral Family, Magistral Small, Mistral Small 3.1, Mistral Small 3.2, Codestral. Use Ollama for the easiest setup: ollama run llama3.1:8b.

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