# Hardware compatibility

JARVIS-QVAC has one inference owner: `jarvisd` owns the QVAC master and every
model call goes through `daemon/qvac-master.js`. The harness, media jobs, and
computer-use tools do not start competing QVAC servers. The GPU gate is strict:
when QVAC cannot report a usable GPU backend, inference fails with a truthful
diagnostic instead of silently falling back to CPU.

| Hardware path | Recommended profile | Expected backend | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AMD Vulkan | laptop-16gb or desktop-gpu | Vulkan/llama.cpp | Verify the QVAC runtime sees the ICD, not only `vulkaninfo`. |
| NVIDIA CUDA | desktop-gpu | CUDA/cuBLAS | Install a driver compatible with the QVAC build and verify VRAM. |
| Intel Vulkan | laptop-16gb | Vulkan | Use a current Mesa stack; larger media jobs may remain queued. |
| CPU only | unsupported for inference | none | Wake and diagnostics can run, but the master refuses model inference. |

Run `npm run gpu-doctor` before downloading models. `assessModelFit()` should
select the largest profile that fits reported VRAM; an unavailable model stays
visible as unavailable and never causes the voice loop to crash. The current
machine's GPU visibility is an installation concern when this document is
updated; record the exact doctor output in the release checklist.