Lets start with Q4_K_M. An example of it is mistralai/mistral-7b-instruct-v0.3

Lets go through each parameters,

Q4

Means 4-bit quantization.

Original models are usually 16-bit or 32-bit precision.
4-bit compresses them heavily → much smaller memory usage.

K

Means it uses K-quantization (grouped quantization).

This is an improved method used such that

• Preserves better accuracy
• Keeps performance stable
• Reduces memory efficiently

M

Means Medium variant of K-quantization.

There are usually:

• Q4_K_S → Small (slightly smaller, slightly lower quality)
• Q4_K_M → Medium (better balance)
• Q4_K_L → Large (better quality, more RAM)

How we can recommend a model for local run ?

Quant	RAM Usage	Quality	Recommended?
Q2	Very Low	Low	❌ No
Q4_K_S	Low	Good	OK
Q4_K_M	Moderate	Very Good	✅ YES
Q8_0	High	Excellent	Only if 32GB+ RAM

If you have:

• 16GB RAM → use Q4_K_M
• 32GB RAM → Q4_K_M or Q8_0
• Less than 16GB → try Q4_K_S

Now I am trying to load the model in LM studio on my local laptop.