Can I Run IBM Granite 4.1 on 24 GB system RAM?

Superseded model. IBM Granite 4.1 has been superseded by IBM Granite 4.2. This page is kept for reference; the newer family is a better starting point. View IBM Granite 4.2 →

作者： Jakub Rusinowski · 最后更新： 2026年4月29日

Yes — comfortably

Yes, comfortably — Granite 4.1 8B at Q8_0 needs about 10.4 GB of the 19.2 GB usable on 24 GB system RAM, leaving ~8.8 GB spare and running at ~7.3 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.

Confidence: medium · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~7.3 tok/s

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24 GB system RAM — what it gives a model

Usable memory for models	19.2 GB
Memory bandwidth	90 GB/s

IBM Granite 4.1 on 24 GB system RAM: memory by quantization

Quant	Memory needed	Fits 19.2 GB?	Max context	Est. speed	Download
F16	17.9 GB	✓ Yes	16K	~4 tok/s	16 GB
Q8_0	10.4 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~7.3 tok/s	8.5 GB
Q6_K	8.5 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~9.2 tok/s	6.6 GB
Q5_K_M	7.6 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~10.5 tok/s	5.7 GB
Q4_K_M	6.8 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~12.1 tok/s	4.8 GB
Q3_K_M	5.4 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~16.3 tok/s	3.4 GB
Q2_K	4.6 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~20.1 tok/s	2.6 GB

Which IBM Granite 4.1 sizes fit

Variant	Needs at Q4_K_M	Fits?	Est. speed
Granite 4.1 30B	20.7 GB	✗ Too large	—
Granite 4.1 8B	6.8 GB	✓ Fits	~12.1 tok/s
Granite 4.1 3B	3.5 GB	✓ Fits	~28.2 tok/s

What to watch out for

1 larger variant of IBM Granite 4.1 does not fit and would need CPU offload or different hardware.
This model does not publish its full attention configuration, so the KV-cache share of these figures is inferred from its parameter count rather than computed exactly.
These figures assume CPU-only inference. Any discrete GPU, even an 8 GB one, will be several times faster for models that fit in its VRAM.

Recommended setup

llama.cpp (CPU build) or Ollama — both run without a GPU

How these numbers are calculated

Memory need = quantized weights + KV cache at 8,192 tokens (f16) + 0.8 GB runtime overhead.
19.2 GB of the 24 GB is treated as usable for model weights (80% — the rest is the OS and running applications).
DDR5-5600 dual channel at 89.6 GB/s peak. CPU decode is assumed to sustain 35% of that peak, because CPU inference is not purely bandwidth-bound — it also spends real time in compute and thread synchronisation. This figure is an assumption, not a fitted constant: no CPU measurement is in the calibration set.
CPU-only inference: no GPU is assumed. A GPU of any size will beat these figures substantially.
Throughput is a memory-bandwidth roofline estimate, not a measurement. It is labelled "estimated" everywhere it appears.
KV cache is inferred from the parameter count because this model does not publish its full attention configuration.

FAQ