Best local LLMs for the Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS (8 GB)

Each list assumes the context that task needs, so a model that fits for chat may rank lower for long documents.

General chat at 8K context

  1. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Gemma 4 E2B Q4_K_M · 4.3 tok/s · Slow
  2. 57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nemotron Labs Dory 1.0 4B Q3_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow
  3. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM5 2B Q5_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow
  4. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Spark-X2.6 4B Q3_K_M · 3.1 tok/s · Slow
  5. 57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nanbeige4.2 3B Q3_K_M · 3.0 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)

Coding at 32K context

  1. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM5 2B Q5_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow
  2. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Spark-X2.6 4B Q3_K_M · 3.1 tok/s · Slow
  3. 57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nemotron Labs Dory 1.0 4B Q3_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)
  4. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Gemma 4 E2B Q4_K_M · 4.3 tok/s · Slow
  5. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 67/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. LFM3 1.7B Q6_K · 3.9 tok/s · Slow

Reasoning at 32K context

  1. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM5 2B Q5_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow
  2. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Spark-X2.6 4B Q3_K_M · 3.1 tok/s · Slow
  3. 57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nemotron Labs Dory 1.0 4B Q3_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)
  4. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Gemma 4 E2B Q4_K_M · 4.3 tok/s · Slow
  5. 43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.5 4B Q2_K · 3.5 tok/s · Slow

Documents (RAG) at 32K context

  1. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Gemma 4 E2B Q4_K_M · 4.3 tok/s · Slow
  2. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. LFM3 1.7B Q6_K · 3.9 tok/s · Slow
  3. 51Fair quality (C) · 51 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. TMax 4B Q3_K_M · 3.0 tok/s · Slow
  4. 41Fair quality (C) · 41 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Unlimited OCR 2 (3B-A0.6B) Q4_K_M · 15.5 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
  5. 49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B Q2_K · 3.6 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)

Agents & tools at 64K context

  1. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. LFM3 1.7B Q6_K · 3.9 tok/s · Slow
  2. 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM5 2B Q3_K_M · 5.0 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)
  3. 60Good quality (B) · 60 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Gemma 4 E2B Q5_K_M · 3.5 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)
  4. 46Fair quality (C) · 46 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Spark-X2.6 4B Q2_K · 3.9 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)
  5. 36Basic quality (D) · 36 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Granite 4.0 H Tiny (7B-A1B) Q3_K_M · 12.2 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)

Reverse engineering at 32K context

  1. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Gemma 4 E2B Q4_K_M · 4.3 tok/s · Slow
  2. 58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM5 2B Q5_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow
  3. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Spark-X2.6 4B Q3_K_M · 3.1 tok/s · Slow
  4. 57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nemotron Labs Dory 1.0 4B Q3_K_M · 3.2 tok/s · Slow (tight fit)
  5. 55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 67/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. LFM3 1.7B Q6_K · 3.9 tok/s · Slow

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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