The best GPU for running Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE) (2026)
Ranked from live rental prices and computed VRAM fit, not opinion. Every card is judged at Q4_K_M — the quantisation most people actually run — at 8k context, so it's a fair comparison. A card that can't fit Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE)at that quality isn't listed, because it could only run a crushed version.
Best value
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Best throughput per dollar among cards that fit.
Cheapest that runs it
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Lowest-cost card that still fits the model.
No compromise
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Most headroom and highest throughput.
Every card that runs it, ranked
Best quantisation each card fits at 8k context, with the cheapest live rental and a bandwidth-derived throughput estimate. Sorted by tokens/sec per dollar.
| GPU | VRAM | VRAM used | ~tok/s | Cheapest rental | tok/s per $ |
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How this ranking is made — and its limit
Fit and throughput are computed from Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE)'s own configuration with the engine behind our cost-to-run page (bits-per-weight validated to 0.7% median error). Rental prices are the cheapest live figure across the providers we track, last updated Sat, 14 Nov 2026 18:20:08 GMT.
The value column ranks renting, because that's what we can price precisely. If you're buyinga card, the fit and throughput columns are exactly what you need — but we don't publish a purchase-price value ranking, because we don't have verified street prices and won't invent them. For the buy-vs-rent decision itself, see the guides below.
Tokens/sec is a bandwidth-derived estimate, not a benchmark — we don't run our own hardware tests (editorial policy).
Check it yourself
See exactly what fits, at any context length
Running Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE): common questions
How much VRAM do you need to run Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE)?
Can an RTX 4090 run Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE)?
Can an RTX 3090 run Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE)?
Can an RTX 4060 Ti 16GB run Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE)?
Before you buy
Llama 4 vs Qwen3 for Local Use: The Honest Comparison
The quiet truth: for most home users, Qwen3 is the better default than Llama 4 Scout. Where each actually wins, the LMArena controversy, and the specific cases where Scout is worth it.
gpt-oss vs Qwen3 vs DeepSeek — which open model should you run in 2026?
Three of the best open models, three different strengths. gpt-oss is the cost-effective all-rounder, Qwen3 owns coding, DeepSeek owns hard reasoning. Here's how to pick for your work.
How much VRAM do you need?
About 0.57 GB per billion parameters at 4-bit, plus room for context: the rule behind the numbers on this page, with worked examples.
The best GPU for local AI right now
The card with enough VRAM for your model at the lowest price, budget by budget.