Run a 2.78T Parameter Model on CPU with Just 8GB RAM
dr_cintas · x · 2026-08-07
The open-source project kimi-k3-in-c demonstrates a method to run ultra-large models in extremely low-resource environments. The project is a 176KB pure C99 engine that requires no GPU or CUDA framework, needing only 8.24 GB of RAM to run a 2.78 trillion parameter model on a CPU.
Its core mechanism streams the model's experts directly from disk instead of loading them entirely into memory. The author notes that while it currently runs quite slowly, it holds great potential as more powerful models continue to shrink in size.
Related event: Pure C99 Engine Runs 2.78T Parameter Kimi K3 on 8GB RAM(5 posts)→
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