on

Can the Intel Xeon Silver (4100 to 4300 series) NAS (256 GB) run Gemma 3 12B IT?

59Good quality (B) · 59 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, but slowly

Slow. At Q6_K it needs about 29.7 GB of 230 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 3.9 tok/s.

Best quant
Q6_K
Generation speed
3.9 tok/s
Prompt processing
28.7 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
35.7 s
Largest safe context
128K

Best app to run it on the Intel Xeon Silver (4100 to 4300 series) NAS (256 GB)

On Linux

Ollama

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp (ggml), MLX (Apple silicon, preview)

  • One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.
  • Serves an OpenAI-compatible API that other apps and coding tools can use.
ollama run gemma3:12b

How we choose: the files published for this model, which apps run in a container on a NAS without a graphics card (models run on its processor), and whether the model fits fully in the memory models can use. Details.

Download Gemma 3 12B IT

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run gemma3:12b

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

huggingface.co/ggml-org/gemma-3-12b-it-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/ggml-org/gemma-3-12b-it-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from Google, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/google/gemma-3-12b-it (opens in a new tab)

Free Hugging Face account needed: request access on the model page, and Google approves it (usually within minutes to a few hours).

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from Google. The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/google-deepmind/gemma (opens in a new tab)

Google DeepMind’s official Gemma library.

git clone https://github.com/google-deepmind/gemma

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 59Good quality (B) · 59 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at Q6_K, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Slow
How well it runs on the Intel Xeon Silver (4100 to 4300 series) NAS (256 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.26.7 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of the NAS’s memory that models can use (the rest stays with the NAS system and its storage services); fewer when it goes past that limit.25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.4.7 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.3.0 / 15
Match score59.4 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Intel Xeon Silver (4100 to 4300 series) NAS (256 GB)

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 24.6 GB 230 GB 9.2 tok/s Slow 42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 25.7 GB 230 GB 7.3 tok/s Slow 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 27.1 GB 230 GB 5.6 tok/s Slow 57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 58/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 28.4 GB 230 GB 4.6 tok/s Slow 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 29.7 GB 230 GB 3.9 tok/s Slow 59Good quality (B) · 59 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 32.6 GB 230 GB 2.9 tok/s Very slow 60Good quality (B) · 60 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
F16 44.1 GB 230 GB 1.3 tok/s Very slow 60Good quality (B) · 60 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.

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