Can I Run Llama 3.1 Family on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM)?

Superseded model. Llama 3.1 Family has been superseded by Llama 4. This page is kept for reference; the newer family is a better starting point. View Llama 4 →

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 23, 2024

Yes — comfortably

Yes, comfortably — Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at Q8_0 needs about 10.4 GB of the 16 GB usable on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM), leaving ~5.6 GB spare and running at ~52.5 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 32,768 tokens of context.

Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~52.5 tok/s

RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM) — what it gives a model

Usable memory for models16 GB
Memory bandwidth717 GB/s
Form factorLaptop
Operating systemWindows or Linux
Memory upgradeableYes

Llama 3.1 Family on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM): memory by quantization

QuantMemory neededFits 16 GB?Max contextEst. speedDownload
F1617.9 GB✗ No16 GB
Q8_010.4 GB✓ Yes32K~52.5 tok/s8.5 GB
Q6_K8.4 GB✓ Yes64K~64.8 tok/s6.6 GB
Q5_K_M7.5 GB✓ Yes64K~72.5 tok/s5.7 GB
Q4_K_M6.7 GB✓ Yes64K~81.8 tok/s4.8 GB
Q3_K_M5.3 GB✓ Yes64K~104.3 tok/s3.4 GB
Q2_K4.5 GB✓ Yes64K~122.9 tok/s2.6 GB

RTX 4090 laptop limitations

Recommended setup

Ollama or llama.cpp (CUDA/ROCm) — vLLM if you need concurrent serving

How these numbers are calculated

FAQ

Can I run Llama 3.1 Family on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM)?

Yes, comfortably — Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at Q8_0 needs about 10.4 GB of the 16 GB usable on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM), leaving ~5.6 GB spare and running at ~52.5 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 32,768 tokens of context.

Which quantization of Llama 3.1 Family should I use on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM)?

Q8_0 — it needs about 10.4 GB of the 16 GB available, downloads as roughly 8.5 GB, and runs at an estimated 52.5 tokens/sec with up to 32K of context.

What limits Llama 3.1 Family on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM)?

Nothing binding — the model fits with headroom and generates at a usable speed on this hardware.

Which runtime should I use?

Ollama or llama.cpp (CUDA/ROCm) — vLLM if you need concurrent serving

Other Computers

Other Models on RTX 4090 Laptop (16 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM)

Llama 3.1 Family on GPUs

What This Model Is Good At

Model & Tools

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