Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 (RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell): which AI models can it run?
Estimated from the specifications below. Choose the memory size you have or plan to buy, then read the table for that size.
Specifications
- Brand
- Lenovo
- Chip
- Intel Core Ultra HX (Series 2)
- Processor
- Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX, Core Ultra 9 275HX, 285HX and other HX options
- Graphics
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell Generation 24GB GDDR7 Laptop GPU
- Memory type
- DDR5-5600 SODIMM or DDR5-6400 CSODIMM
- Memory options
- 192 GB
- Graphics memory
- 24 GB
- Memory bandwidth
- 896 GB/s
Sources: https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_P16_Gen_3/ThinkPad_P16_Gen_3_Spec.pdf, https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/products/workstations/professional-laptops/compare/
PSREF states up to 192GB non-ECC (4 x 48GB) or 128GB ECC, in four slots; only the maximum is given as a total. RTX PRO 1000 to 4000 are separate options. GPU bandwidth from NVIDIA professional laptop compare page.
With 192 GB of memory
About 24 GB of it can hold a model.
| Model | Fit | Needs (GB) | Writing speed (tokens per second) | Speed | Quality | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.2 3B llama3.2:3b |
Fits | 5 | 157 to 291 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 4B qwen3:4b · thinks first |
Fits | 6 | 125 to 233 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Gemma 3 4B gemma3:4b |
Fits | 6.7 | 95 to 176 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Mistral 7B v0.3 mistral:7b |
Fits | 7.8 | 71 to 132 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Llama 3.1 8B llama3.1:8b |
Fits | 8.3 | 64 to 119 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 8B qwen3:8b · thinks first |
Fits | 8.9 | 60 to 112 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Gemma 3 12B gemma3:12b |
Fits | 15.9 | 39 to 72 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| DeepSeek-R1 Distill Qwen 14B deepseek-r1:14b · thinks first |
Fits | 13.7 | 35 to 65 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Phi-4 14B phi4:14b |
Fits | 13.9 | 34 to 64 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 14B qwen3:14b · thinks first |
Fits | 13.4 | 34 to 63 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| gpt-oss 20B gpt-oss:20b · thinks first |
Fits | 16.5 | 78 to 145 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Gemma 3 27B gemma3:27b Part of the model runs from system memory, which is much slower. |
Partial offload (slow) | 27.2 | 2.8 to 5.1 | Unclear could be Slow or Moderate | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 30B (A3B) qwen3:30b · thinks first |
Tight | 22.6 | 92 to 170 | Fast | 9.3/10 | Estimated |
| Qwen3 32B qwen3:32b · thinks first Part of the model runs from system memory, which is much slower. |
Partial offload (slow) | 26.3 | 2.4 to 4.4 | Slow | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Llama 3.1 70B llama3.1:70b Part of the model runs from system memory, which is much slower. |
Partial offload (slow) | 51.5 | 1.1 to 2 | Slow | not measured yet | Estimated |
| gpt-oss 120B gpt-oss:120b · thinks first Part of the model runs from system memory, which is much slower. |
Partial offload (slow) | 70.5 | 10 to 18 | Unclear could be Moderate or Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
Models marked "thinks first" can write out their reasoning before they answer, so a job takes longer than the speed alone suggests.
Editing, gaming, CAD and other work
Each app below publishes a minimum and a recommended system requirement. We compare them with this laptop's memory and graphics memory. We do not judge the graphics chip's class, the processor generation or the operating system, because the makers describe those in words: check the source link for the exact card, processor and system they name. Many apps and games run only on Windows or only on macOS. Integrated graphics count as below any requirement for a dedicated card. Not known means the maker does not state this laptop's graphics memory.
Labels follow the makers' published lists. All use cases.
Speed is the speed of writing an answer, shown as a range. Reading speed is not estimated. How the estimates work · How close they are · Back to the finder