QuantDiff

Best Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B quant for a 8GB GPU

Short answer: UD-Q6_K_XL from unsloth . Of the 7 Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B files we tested that fit fully in 8GB with a 8192-token context, it has the smallest diff from the BF16 model (mean KLD 0.0060, same top token 96.7%).

Smallest diff that fits 8GB
UD-Q6_K_XL by unsloth
File size
6.62 GB
(mean)
0.0060
96.7%
89.0%
Accuracy
Generation ()
36 t/s on Apple M2 Pro 32GB full GPU
NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q6_K_XL.gguf
How to run this file

From unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF, file NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q6_K_XL.gguf.

(downloads it, then starts a chat; type /bye to quit):

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF:NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q6_K_XL.gguf

: open the Discover tab, search unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF, pick the UD-Q6_K_XL download, then load it from the Chat tab.

Step-by-step guide

Runner-up
UD-Q5_K_XL by unsloth
File size
5.47 GB
(mean)
0.0176
94.5%
88.5%
Accuracy
Generation ()
37 t/s on Apple M2 Pro 32GB full GPU
NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q5_K_XL.gguf
How to run this file

From unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF, file NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q5_K_XL.gguf.

(downloads it, then starts a chat; type /bye to quit):

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF:NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q5_K_XL.gguf

: open the Discover tab, search unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF, pick the UD-Q5_K_XL download, then load it from the Chat tab.

Step-by-step guide

Fastest that fits
UD-Q3_K_XL by unsloth
File size
3.93 GB
(mean)
0.0510
91.2%
88.5%
Accuracy
Generation ()
45 t/s on Apple M2 Pro 32GB full GPU
NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q3_K_XL.gguf
How to run this file

From unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF, file NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q3_K_XL.gguf.

(downloads it, then starts a chat; type /bye to quit):

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF:NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-UD-Q3_K_XL.gguf

: open the Discover tab, search unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Bolt-E4B-GGUF, pick the UD-Q3_K_XL download, then load it from the Chat tab.

Step-by-step guide

Other budgets: 12GB16GB24GB · all 8 Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B quants

How we picked

We estimate VRAM need as file size + f16 KV cache for 8192 tokens + about 0.6GB of compute buffers, and keep 0.5GB free for your desktop. Among files that fit, we rank by mean KL divergence against the BF16 model's logits, then by tool-call score. If you need a longer context, step down one quant level or quantize the KV cache (-ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0). Methodology.

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