The Hardware Barrier
A 70 Billion parameter model usually requires around 140GB of VRAM to load (meaning you need multiple RTX 4090s). But what if you only have a gaming laptop?
The Quantization Hack (GGUF)
Quantization compresses the model. It reduces the precision of the numbers in the neural network from 16-bit to 4-bit. This shrinks a 140GB model down to roughly 40GB.
Offloading to RAM
The final jugad is using LM Studio or Ollama. These tools use the GGUF format, which allows you to 'offload' the model. It puts whatever fits into your GPU's 8GB VRAM, and shoves the rest into your normal system RAM. It's slower, but it works!
