Definition
The total volume of VRAM or RAM occupied by model weights, active KV caches, and loaded vector index segments required to sustain an AI agent's reasoning or a RAG pipeline's retrieval. It represents a critical architectural trade-off where larger footprints allow for higher-dimensional embeddings and longer context windows at the expense of increased infrastructure costs and potential latency.
Specifically refers to runtime hardware memory (VRAM/RAM) utilization, not the static disk size of the model files or database.
"A physical workbench: the larger the surface area, the more complex blueprints (context) and heavy specialized tools (model parameters) you can have ready for immediate use."
- KV Cache(Component)
- Quantization(Optimization strategy)
- Context Window(Prerequisite)
- HNSW Index(Component)
Conceptual Overview
The total volume of VRAM or RAM occupied by model weights, active KV caches, and loaded vector index segments required to sustain an AI agent's reasoning or a RAG pipeline's retrieval. It represents a critical architectural trade-off where larger footprints allow for higher-dimensional embeddings and longer context windows at the expense of increased infrastructure costs and potential latency.
Disambiguation
Specifically refers to runtime hardware memory (VRAM/RAM) utilization, not the static disk size of the model files or database.
Visual Analog
A physical workbench: the larger the surface area, the more complex blueprints (context) and heavy specialized tools (model parameters) you can have ready for immediate use.