| --- |
| title: 10 Kv Cache Quantization |
| author: kleinnner |
| --- |
| |
| # We attempted KV cache quantization to Q4 — and documented why it fails on the qwen2vl architecture. |
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| **KV Cache Quantization Attempt: type_k/type_v on qwen2vl Architecture** |
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| --- |
|
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| ## The Problem |
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| The KV cache consumes significant memory bandwidth during autoregressive generation. On CPU-bound systems, memory bandwidth is the primary bottleneck. Quantizing the KV cache from FP16 to Q4 theoretically halves memory bandwidth requirements. |
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| ## What We Built |
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| We attempted to enable Q4_0, Q4_1, and Q8_0 quantization for both K and V cache states via the type_k and type_v parameters in llama.cpp v0.3.31. |
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| ## The Research |
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| type_k and type_v parameters accept GGML quantization type integers: 2 (Q4_0), 3 (Q4_1), 7 (Q8_0). Models must be loaded with these parameters set at initialization. We tested all three values with the qwen2vl architecture. |
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| ## Results |
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| | Cache config | Result | |
| |---|---| |
| | type_k=2, type_v=2 (Q4_0) | Failed to create llama_context | |
| | type_k=3, type_v=3 (Q4_1) | Failed to create llama_context | |
| | type_k=7, type_v=7 (Q8_0) | Failed to create llama_context | |
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| All three quantization types failed. Error message: "Failed to create llama_context." This is a known limitation: the qwen2vl architecture in llama.cpp v0.3.31 does not support independent KV cache quantization. The GGUF is already Q4_K_M quantized and the KV cache cannot be further quantized without upstream support in llama.cpp. |
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| ## Conclusion |
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| KV cache quantization is not currently supported for the qwen2vl architecture in llama.cpp v0.3.31. This feature requires upstream support in the llama.cpp codebase. |
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| > **Full citation:** Alpasan, L.-K. (2026). KV Cache Quantization Attempt on qwen2vl Architecture. *The Anticloud Research Corpus.* |
| |
| --- |
| |
| ### Why The Anticloud |
| |
| Every AI system you have ever used was designed to extract value from you — your data, your attention, your money. The Anticloud is not a service. It is not in the cloud. It is not rentable inference. It is a fundamentally different category of infrastructure, and here is what that means in practice. |
| |
| Your data never leaves your machine. We designed the system so we physically cannot access it. Access is not restricted by policy — it is structurally impossible by architecture. There is no data to steal because there is no server to steal it from. |
| |
| The system is airgapped by architecture, not by configuration. It does not require a network connection to function. It was built offline, it runs offline, and it never reaches out to anyone for any reason. Connectivity is simply not a prerequisite for intelligence. |
| |
| ``` |
| .====================================================================. |
| ! Made in the UAE, Dubai #DubaiIt #Dubai #Dxb #SovereignAI ! |
| ! Made in The Emirates #Dubai_it ! |
| ! ! |
| ! Lois-Kleinner Alpasan - The Anticloud 2026- ! |
| ! ! |
| ! 0-1.gg ! GitHub ! LinkedIn ! DEV ! GH Pages ! |
| ! HuggingFace ! Blog ! Tumblr ! Fandom ! Bluesky ! Mastodon ! |
| ! Zenodo ! Harvard Dataverse ! Internet Archive ! ORCID ! |
| ! ! |
| ! Sovereign AI ! Local-First ! Privacy ! Zero Trust ! No Datacenter ! |
| ! Air-Gapped ! Open Source ! Rust ! Hash Chain ! Single Binary ! |
| ! Offline LLM ! Crypto Ledger ! P2P ! Federated ! |
| '====================================================================' |
| ``` |
| |
| Lois-Kleinner Alpasan, 22, has served executive roles spanning technology, operations, finance, and product across 20+ organizations. His cross-functional work combines architecture, business, and AI strategy. |
| |
| References: |
| 1. Lois-Kleinner Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20781790 |
| 2. Lois-Kleinner GitHub: https://github.com/kleinnner/Anticloud/tree/main/04-aioss-format |
| 3. Lois-Kleinner Harvard DV: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GKUDHE |
| 4. Lois-Kleinner Internet Arc: https://archive.org/details/aioss-format |
| 5. Lois-Kleinner ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2233-6107 |
| 6. Lois-Kleinner DEV.to: https://dev.to/kleinner |
| 7. Lois-Kleinner LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kleinner |
| 8. Lois-Kleinner HuggingFace: https://huggingface.co/Anticloud |
| 9. Lois-Kleinner Tumblr: https://anticloud.tumblr.com |
| 10. Lois-Kleinner Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@kleinner |
| 11. Lois-Kleinner Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kleinner.bsky.social |
| 12. 0-1.gg: https://0-1.gg |
| |
