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Can the NVIDIA RTX 3090 run Llama 3.1 8B?

RTX 3090 × Llama 3.1 8B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP1617.7 GB of 24 GB
Weights 16.1 GBKV cache 1.1 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Speed~35tokens per second
Max context54Ktokens that fit at FP16
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Yes. The NVIDIA RTX 3090 can run Llama 3.1 8B fully in VRAM at FP16 (full quality), using about 17.7 GB of the 24 GB available, at roughly 35 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Llama 3.1 8B:

ollama run llama3.1:8b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 6.5 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the RTX 3090

Run it in the cloud

No NVIDIA RTX 3090? Run Llama 3.1 8B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Rent a GPU on RunPodRent a GPU on Vast.ai

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 24 GB the NVIDIA RTX 3090 can use.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality17.7 GBFits~35 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless10.2 GBFits~66 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent8.3 GBFits~85 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good7.4 GBFits~98 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular6.5 GBFits~115 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded5.6 GBFits~143 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded4.7 GBFits~187 tok/s

Measured speed from real RTX 3090 owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own NVIDIA RTX 3090, next to our estimate.

No one has measured Llama 3.1 8B on the NVIDIA RTX 3090 yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an RTX 3090? Add your real speed

One command times Llama 3.1 8B in your own Ollama, shows you exactly what it would send, and asks before sending anything. No sign-up, no personal data.

macOS and Linux

curl -fsSL https://gpufit.dev/bench.sh | sh -s -- llama3.1:8b

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:GPUFIT_MODEL="llama3.1:8b"; irm https://gpufit.dev/bench.ps1 | iex

How the benchmark works

GPUs that run Llama 3.1 8B comfortably

Models that run well on the NVIDIA RTX 3090

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA RTX 3090 run Llama 3.1 8B?

Yes. The NVIDIA RTX 3090 can run Llama 3.1 8B fully in VRAM at FP16 (full quality), using about 17.7 GB of the 24 GB available, at roughly 35 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Llama 3.1 8B need?

About 6.5 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 17.7 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Llama 3.1 8B on the NVIDIA RTX 3090?

Roughly 35 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the NVIDIA RTX 3090's 936 GB/s memory bandwidth.