NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB) — Local LLM Performance & Compatibility

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 12, 2026

10 GB VRAM limits to 8B models but with very fast bandwidth. The 12GB variant (RTX 3080 Ti / 3080 12GB) is significantly better for AI.

Technical Specifications

VRAM10 GB
Memory Bandwidth760 GB/s
TDP320 W
ArchitectureAmpere GA102
Release Year2020
MSRP at Launch$699
Inference Speed (Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M)50–97 tok/s (estimated)
Inference Speed (Llama 3.3 70B Q4_K_M)Does not fit — needs ~44 GB of 10 GB usable
Buy This HardwareNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB — 10 GB VRAM · 320 W board powerDeploy in the Cloud NowRTX 4090 on RunPod — from $0.34/hr · rate checked 2026-07

or compare on Vast.ai from $0.35/hr (typical low · varies)

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
10 GB VRAM · 320 W board power
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LLMs Compatible with 10 GB VRAM

All models below run comfortably in 10 GB VRAM with Q4_K_M quantization.

Llama 3.1 FamilyLlama 3.1 8B Instruct · 6 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run llama3.1
Qwen 2.5 FamilyQwen 2.5 14B Instruct · 9 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run qwen2.5:14b
Gemma 2 FamilyGemma 2 9B IT · 6 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run gemma2
Phi-4 MiniPhi-4 Mini (3.8B) · 3 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run phi4-mini
Mistral FamilyMistral NeMo 12B · 8 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run mistral-nemo
SmolLM2SmolLM2 1.7B Instruct · 2 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run smollm2:1.7b

Best Use Cases

Quick Start with Ollama

Install Ollama then run the recommended model for this GPU:

ollama run llama3.1:8b

FAQ

Can the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB) run local LLMs?

Yes — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB) has 10 GB VRAM and runs 10 GB VRAM limits to 8B models but with very fast bandwidth. The 12GB variant (RTX 3080 Ti / 3080 12GB) is significantly

How fast is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB) for AI inference?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB) is estimated to run Llama 3.1 8B at 50–97 tok/s with Q4_K_M quantization. Llama 3.3 70B does not fit: it needs about 44 GB against 10 GB usable. These are modelled estimates, not measurements — see /en/methodology.

What LLMs can I run on 10 GB VRAM?

With 10 GB you can run: Llama 3.1 Family, Qwen 2.5 Family, Gemma 2 Family, Phi-4 Mini, Mistral Family. Use Ollama for the easiest setup: ollama run llama3.1:8b.

Can I Run It? — NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB)

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