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Can the NVIDIA RTX 3070 run Gemma 2 9B?

RTX 3070 × Gemma 2 9B8K context
Yes, with heavy quantizationFits only at a low-quality quant
Memory at Q3_K_M7.9 GB of 8 GB
Weights 4.5 GBKV cache 2.8 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantQ3_K_MNoticeably degraded
Memory7.9 GBof 8 GB usable
Speed~60tokens per second
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Only just. Gemma 2 9B fits on the NVIDIA RTX 3070 at Q3_K_M, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 60 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

Ollama's default gemma2:9b download is Q4_K_M, which needs about 9 GB, more than the 8 GB available. Download the Q3_K_M GGUF instead (LM Studio lists quants per model), or try a smaller context length.

Run it in the cloud

Want full quality? Run Gemma 2 9B on a bigger rented GPU.

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Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 8 GB the NVIDIA RTX 3070 can use.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality21.9 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless13.2 GBToo big—
Q6_KExcellent11 GBToo big—
Q5_K_MVery good10 GBToo big—
Q4_K_MGood, most popular9 GBToo big—
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded7.9 GBFits~60 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded6.9 GBFits~78 tok/s

GPUs that run Gemma 2 9B comfortably

Check NVIDIA RTX 3080 10GB prices

Models that run well on the NVIDIA RTX 3070

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA RTX 3070 run Gemma 2 9B?

Only just. Gemma 2 9B fits on the NVIDIA RTX 3070 at Q3_K_M, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 60 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.

How much VRAM does Gemma 2 9B need?

About 9 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 21.9 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Gemma 2 9B on the NVIDIA RTX 3070?

Roughly 60 tokens per second at Q3_K_M, estimated from the NVIDIA RTX 3070's 448 GB/s memory bandwidth.