Qwen3.8-27B UD-IQ4_XS on the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB (Windows)

Overview

This Windows candidate pairs the RX 7900 XT 20 GB with the pinned model and quantization named above at the catalog's 16,384-token context. The 20 GB tier uses a compact IQ4_XS conversion of 27B at the catalog's 16K context. The point is to test a larger model choice against a smaller-quant alternative with response quality and latency measured, not to infer fit from the GGUF size. It is a test plan, not a claim of load, full-GPU placement, answer quality or speed.

Requirements

Use a standard-user 64-bit Windows 11 lab system with an AMD driver exposing Vulkan and the Microsoft Visual C++ x64 runtime. The current control window supervises one loopback server; driver installation and a consumer installer are not included. Check the card's currently reported free GPU memory, not just the number printed on its box. A longer prompt, more active requests and the desktop can change the memory budget. Keep the exact driver and operating-system build with any later test.

The pinned GGUF is 14,252,845,984 bytes (14.25 GB decimal). Keep more free local SSD space than the artifact itself for verified acquisition and cache maintenance; no fixed extra margin or host-RAM minimum has been qualified. Review the exact model license before acquisition. A planned trial must record the actual free-memory budget, selected device, loaded context, host and GPU buffers, delivered output and representative answers. The catalog context is an intended setting, not a demonstrated maximum.

Limitations

• The exact-card load, context, GPU/host buffers, response quality and speed have no published qualification result.
• The supervised Windows path requires separate AMD driver and Visual C++ prerequisites; no consumer installer is released.
• This candidate requests full-GPU placement; it is not a verified physical-residency or all-operations-on-GPU claim.