SmolLM 135M Instruct on Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 GB)

Can the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 GB) run SmolLM 135M Instruct?

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q3_K_M it needs about 0.9 GB of 2.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 50.5 tok/s.

Best quant: Q3_K_M
Generation speed: 50.5 tok/s
Prompt processing: 46.2 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 22.2 s
Largest safe context: 2K

Best app to run it on the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 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 smollm:135m-instruct-v0.2-q3_K_M

llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.
KoboldCpp

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 SmolLM 135M Instruct

Recommended for the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 GB): Q3_K_M. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

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 smollm:135m-instruct-v0.2-q3_K_M

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the Q3_K_M file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/QuantFactory/SmolLM-135M-Instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/QuantFactory/SmolLM-135M-Instruct-GGUF:Q3_K_M

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/HuggingFaceTB/SmolLM-135M-Instruct (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 3 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 1Basic quality (D) · 1 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 50/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q3_K_M, 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 Runs great: How well it runs on the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 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.	0.8 / 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.	15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	10.0 / 15
Match score	50.8 / 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 Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	0.9 GB	2.0 GB	64.2 tok/s	Runs great	1Basic quality (D) · 1 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 50/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	0.9 GB	2.0 GB	50.5 tok/s	Runs great	1Basic quality (D) · 1 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 50/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	0.9 GB	2.0 GB	39.1 tok/s	Runs great	1Basic quality (D) · 1 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 50/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	0.9 GB	2.0 GB	32.3 tok/s	Runs great	1Basic quality (D) · 1 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 49/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	0.9 GB	2.0 GB	27.1 tok/s	Runs well	1Basic quality (D) · 1 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 48/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	0.9 GB	2.0 GB	19.9 tok/s	Runs well	2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 47/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	1.1 GB	2.0 GB	9.2 tok/s	Slow	2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 45/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 2K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 44/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M1 (16 GB) F16 · 130 tok/s · Runs great
2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 44/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 (16 GB) F16 · 229 tok/s · Runs great
2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 44/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 F16 · 603 tok/s · Runs great
2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 44/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 (24 GB) F16 · 229 tok/s · Runs great
2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 44/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Pro (24 GB) F16 · 521 tok/s · Runs great
2Basic quality (D) · 2 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 43/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Intel Arc B580 F16 · 772 tok/s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does SmolLM 135M Instruct need on the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS 4GB?

At Q3_K_M it needs about 0.9 GB. The Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS 4GB has 2.0 GB usable.

How fast is SmolLM 135M Instruct on the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS 4GB?

About 50.5 tok/s at Q3_K_M, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of SmolLM 135M Instruct should I use on the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS 4GB?

Q3_K_M. Of the versions that fit, it is the one that runs best; when two run equally well, the check prefers the higher-rated one.

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.