Can You Run It at Home?

How Kingy decides

Every verdict follows Kingy’s “Can you run it at home?” standard v0.1. A verdict rates one model on one machine type, names the exact version, and always says how Kingy knows.

Text models

Speed is generation speed for one user (batch 1) at the stated context.

Image and video models

Kingy times one standard output: a 5-second clip at the model’s native resolution, or one 1024×1024 image.

Media speed depends too much on compute and pipeline settings to estimate, so media verdicts are always measured or reported. Without either, they read “Not tested yet”.

How Kingy knows

• Kingy measured: Kingy ran it. Each result has a Local Lab receipt with the exact file and hash, runtime build, command, context, speed and date. Failed attempts are kept too.
• Reported: a named third party ran it. Kingy links the report and records their machine, file, runtime and speed. “Runs fine” without numbers does not count.
• Estimated: calculated, not run, from the published file size and the formula below. An estimate always says “(estimated)” and never shows as a bare “Yes”.
• No evidence yet: no measurement, no reliable report and, for text models, no published weight size to estimate from. The verdict is then “Not tested yet”. Kingy never invents a verdict to avoid saying so.

The estimate formula for text models

1. Memory needed = weight file size + KV cache at 8K context + 10% overhead.
2. It fits if the memory needed is no more than the machine type’s usable memory.
3. Speed ≈ 0.5 × memory bandwidth ÷ bytes read per token, where bytes per token = active parameters × bits per weight ÷ 8. Mixture-of-experts models use active, not total, parameters. Real runtimes usually reach 60–80% of bandwidth, so 0.5 errs on the slow side.
4. On GPU PCs, if more than 25% of the weights must sit in system RAM, the estimate is Barely at best.

An estimated “Yes” needs at least 40 tokens/s, twice the threshold, and 20% spare memory. Otherwise the best an estimate can say is “Yes, but slow”. An estimated “No” means even the smallest published version is bigger than the machine’s usable memory plus, on GPU PCs, the system RAM. When a measurement and an estimate disagree, the measurement wins.

Machine types

Verdicts are per machine type, not per exact computer. Each type has a reference machine, and estimates use its numbers. Newer chips are often faster, so estimates err on the slow side. GB means 10⁹ bytes.

Exact versions and rechecks

• Every verdict names the file tested or estimated, its format, the runtime, and how it compares with the official release. Local does not automatically mean compressed, and online does not automatically mean full quality.
• Measured and reported verdicts are marked “Recheck due” after 90 days, estimates after 30 days. The old result stays visible until the recheck.