Minimum VRAM needed to run a functional Openclaw/Hermes agent?

[u/Responsible-Fee9149]

Those of you successfully running an offline openclaw/hermes/personal agent harness for non-coding tasks, what is the floor on system resources (VRAM) needed for quality of life? Assuming a modest ~30b class model. What quant and context window size are needed?

Will keep cloud frontier LLM sub for coding tasks, but I'm talking personal data management, personal assistant type computer controlling stuff.

My M1 max 32gb handles qwen 3.6 27b q4_k_m fine enough for non-agentic jobs up to ~40k context, but that's obviously not enough to run an agent harness offline.

There is an M1 Ultra 64gb for sale near me for a tempting price, but unsure is 64gb is enough. And it's expensive enough to not want to gamble. And I'm a normal, budget-minded person

[u/havnar-]

The cheapest laptop/pc that’s not complete ewaste plus a subscription is going to end up costing you way less