Can the NVIDIA RTX 5090 run Llama 3.1 8B?

RTX 5090 × Llama 3.1 8B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP1617.7 GB of 32 GB
Weights 16.1 GBKV cache 1.1 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Memory17.7 GBof 32 GB usable
Speed~67tokens 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

Yes. The NVIDIA RTX 5090 can run Llama 3.1 8B fully in VRAM at FP16 (full quality), using about 17.7 GB of the 32 GB available, at roughly 67 tokens/second.

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Llama 3.1 8B:

ollama run llama3.1:8b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 6.5 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.

Run it in the cloud

No NVIDIA RTX 5090? Run Llama 3.1 8B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 32 GB the NVIDIA RTX 5090 can use.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality17.7 GBFits~67 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless10.2 GBFits~126 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent8.3 GBFits~163 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good7.4 GBFits~188 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular6.5 GBFits~221 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded5.6 GBFits~274 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded4.7 GBFits~357 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA RTX 5090 run Llama 3.1 8B?

Yes. The NVIDIA RTX 5090 can run Llama 3.1 8B fully in VRAM at FP16 (full quality), using about 17.7 GB of the 32 GB available, at roughly 67 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Llama 3.1 8B need?

About 6.5 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 17.7 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Llama 3.1 8B on the NVIDIA RTX 5090?

Roughly 67 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the NVIDIA RTX 5090's 1792 GB/s memory bandwidth.