Best GPU for running Phi locally

Which GPU or Mac you need for Microsoft’s small Phi models (Phi-4-mini, Phi-4, Phi-4-reasoning-plus, Phi-3.5-MoE), from the cheapest card that runs the small one to what it takes for Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct. All checks are at Q4_K_M, about 4k context.

Cheapest way in: Intel Arc B570 runs Phi-4-mini-instruct for $219. For Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct, the cheapest fit we track is Mac mini M5 Pro 64GB at $3199.

Cheapest hardware per model

"Fits" means the model needs 90% or less of usable memory at Q4 (how we calculate). Prices are dated snapshots, mostly launch MSRP, so street prices can differ a lot; see each device page for its source.

Every priced machine, cheapest first

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