Granite 4.2 3B
Granite 4.2 3B loads in 2.1 GB at Q4_K_M, comfortably from 8 GB of memory — Macs included, starting at the Mac Mini M6 16GB. Below is the memory math we ran for it, the cheapest card that fits, and the fastest machine we track.
How much memory does Granite 4.2 3B need?
Granite 4.2 3B is a 3.7B dense model built for chat, coding. The weights alone take 2.1 GB at Q4_K_M; add context and the OS, and it belongs in the 8 GB memory class. Every number below comes from the ModelFit engine — speeds are estimates, labeled est., because we do not benchmark hardware ourselves.
KV = fp16 estimate (q8_0 cache roughly halves it). "Comfortable" = weights + KV within the engine's tiered budget (~70-85% of memory).
Which machines run Granite 4.2 3B?
Verdicts come from the same engine that powers our fit checker — memory capacity first, bandwidth for speed. How we compute these numbers · Hugging Face model card
More Granite models
Frequently asked questions
How much memory does Granite 4.2 3B need?
2.1 GB for the Q4_K_M weights, plus ~1.8 GB of KV-cache at 16k context — about 3.9 GB total. Comfortable from 8 GB of VRAM or unified memory.
Does Granite 4.2 3B run on a Mac?
Yes — from the Mac Mini M6 16GB (~61 tok/s est.). Unified memory means the RAM budget is the only limit.
What is the cheapest GPU for Granite 4.2 3B?
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the cheapest tracked card that runs Granite 4.2 3B comfortably — ~143 tok/s est. at ~$550 used.
Cite this page
ModelFit: Granite 4.2 3B — specs, memory math and hardware verdicts. https://modelfit.io/models/granite4.2-3b/ (dataset updated 2026-09-03, CC BY 4.0).