Best local LLMs for the Intel Core i3-8100 / Pentium (8th gen desktop) NAS (32 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. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  2. 94Excellent quality (A+) · 94 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.8 27B Q6_K · 0.7 tok/s · Very slow (tight fit)
  3. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  4. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  5. 77Great quality (A) · 77 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nex N2 Mini (35B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well

Coding at 32K context

  1. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  2. 77Great quality (A) · 77 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nex N2 Mini (35B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  3. 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. KAT-Coder V2.5 Dev (35B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  4. 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Sage-A1.5 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  5. 89Excellent quality (A+) · 89 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.6 27B Q4_K_M · 1.0 tok/s · Very slow

Reasoning at 32K context

  1. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  2. 77Great quality (A) · 77 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nex N2 Mini (35B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  3. 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. KAT-Coder V2.5 Dev (35B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  4. 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Sage-A1.5 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  5. 89Excellent quality (A+) · 89 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.6 27B Q4_K_M · 1.0 tok/s · Very slow

Documents (RAG) at 32K context

  1. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  2. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  3. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  4. 90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.8 27B Q4_K_M · 1.0 tok/s · Very slow
  5. 89Excellent quality (A+) · 89 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.6 27B Q4_K_M · 1.0 tok/s · Very slow

Agents & tools at 64K context

  1. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  2. 77Great quality (A) · 77 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nex N2 Mini (35B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  3. 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. KAT-Coder V2.5 Dev (35B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  4. 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Sage-A1.5 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  5. 75Great quality (A) · 75 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Flint (40B-A2.5B) Q3_K_M · 14.4 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)

Reverse engineering at 32K context

  1. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  2. 88Excellent quality (A+) · 88 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.5 27B Q4_K_M · 1.0 tok/s · Very slow
  3. 73Great quality (A) · 73 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 86/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GLM-4.7 Flash (30B-A3B) Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  4. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well
  5. 78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B Q3_K_M · 12.1 tok/s · Runs well

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.

Was this page helpful?