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Can the NVIDIA RTX 4080 run Gemma 3 27B?

RTX 4080 × Gemma 3 27B8K context
Yes, with heavy quantizationFits only at a low-quality quant
Memory at Q2_K15 GB of 16 GB
Weights 10.3 GBKV cache 4.2 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantQ2_KHeavily degraded
Memory15 GBof 16 GB usable
Speed~42tokens 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 3 27B fits on the NVIDIA RTX 4080 at Q2_K, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 42 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 21.4 GB, more than the 16 GB available. Download the Q2_K GGUF instead (LM Studio lists quants per model), or try a smaller context length.

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.

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Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 16 GB the NVIDIA RTX 4080 can use.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality59.6 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless33.9 GBToo big—
Q6_KExcellent27.2 GBToo big—
Q5_K_MVery good24.2 GBToo big—
Q4_K_MGood, most popular21.4 GBToo big—
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded18.2 GBToo big—
Q2_KHeavily degraded15 GBFits~42 tok/s

GPUs that run Gemma 3 27B comfortably

Check NVIDIA RTX 3090 prices

Models that run well on the NVIDIA RTX 4080

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA RTX 4080 run Gemma 3 27B?

Only just. Gemma 3 27B fits on the NVIDIA RTX 4080 at Q2_K, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 42 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.

How much VRAM does Gemma 3 27B need?

About 21.4 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 59.6 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Gemma 3 27B on the NVIDIA RTX 4080?

Roughly 42 tokens per second at Q2_K, estimated from the NVIDIA RTX 4080's 717 GB/s memory bandwidth.