Publishing Local Ollama Model Selection Guide Across Memory Specs

On November 6, 2026, at 11:55, DEV Community · AI published a local Ollama model selection guide for different RAM configurations, originally written by Practical Web Tools. The article tackles what it calls the most common local-AI question of 2026: given X GB of RAM, what should you run?

According to the piece, the answer has shifted considerably over the past year because newer model generations have gotten dramatically better at small sizes. A 4B model from the current crop reportedly beats 7B models from two years ago, which means old best-of lists are actively misleading rather than helpful. The guide organizes its recommendations by four hardware tiers: 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB of RAM, with each pick based on actually running the models on real hardware rather than on outdated benchmarks. One limitation is visible in the available material: the excerpt provided only contains the introduction, and the concrete per-tier model recommendations themselves do not appear in the published text reviewed here. That means the specific model names for each RAM tier cannot be verified from this source, so readers interested in the exact picks would need to consult the original article on DEV Community · AI or Practical Web Tools for the full list.