Rent a GPU

Can the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti run Gemma 3 27B?

RTX 3080 Ti × Gemma 3 27B8K context
Yes, with heavy quantizationFits only at a low-quality quant
Memory at Q2_K12 GB of 12 GB
Weights 10.3 GBKV cache 1.1 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantQ2_KHeavily degraded
Speed~53tokens per second
Max context7Ktokens that fit at Q2_K
  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 3 27B fits on the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti at Q2_K, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 53 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

Ollama's default gemma3:27b download is Q4_K_M, which needs about 18.3 GB, more than the 12 GB available. Download the Q2_K GGUF instead (LM Studio lists quants per model), or try a smaller context length.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the RTX 3080 Ti

Run it in the cloud

Want full quality? Run Gemma 3 27B on a bigger rented GPU.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time. Not sure whether to rent or buy? Compare the cost.

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 12 GB the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti can use.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality56.5 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless30.8 GBToo big—
Q6_KExcellent24.2 GBToo big—
Q5_K_MVery good21.2 GBToo big—
Q4_K_MGood, most popular18.3 GBToo big—
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded15.1 GBToo big—
Q2_KHeavily degraded12 GBFits~53 tok/s

Measured speed from real RTX 3080 Ti owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti, next to our estimate.

No one has measured Gemma 3 27B on the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an RTX 3080 Ti? Add your real speed

One command times Gemma 3 27B 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 -- gemma3:27b

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:GPUFIT_MODEL="gemma3:27b"; irm https://gpufit.dev/bench.ps1 | iex

How the benchmark works

GPUs that run Gemma 3 27B comfortably

Check Radeon RX 7900 XT prices

Models that run well on the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti run Gemma 3 27B?

Only just. Gemma 3 27B fits on the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti at Q2_K, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 53 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.

How much VRAM does Gemma 3 27B need?

About 18.3 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 56.5 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Gemma 3 27B on the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti?

Roughly 53 tokens per second at Q2_K, estimated from the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti's 912 GB/s memory bandwidth.