Can Aya Expanse 32B run on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB?

Q: What should I upgrade first if Aya Expanse 32B feels slow on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB?

Remove offload with more accelerator memory. Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.

YES — With NVFP4

D36Poor

Estimated from fit model

Aya Expanse 32B needs ~23.6 GB VRAM. RTX 4000 Ada 20GB has 20.0 GB. With NVFP4 quantization, expect ~10 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Host offload

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.

Current mode

Balanced

Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.

Aya Expanse 32B at Q4_K_M needs 25.2 GB — too much for RTX 4000 Ada 20GB (20.0 GB). Runs at NVFP4 (23.6 GB) with medium quality. 3 quantization levels fit.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 25.2 GB, exceeds 20.0 GB available

25.2 GB required20.0 GB available

126% VRAM needed

5.2 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

7.2 tok/s

TTFT

26753 ms

Safe context

Memory

25.2 GB / 20.0 GB

Offload

20%

Memory breakdown

Weights19.5 GB

KV Cache2.4 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom2.0 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower

See how fast it feelsAya Expanse 32B on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>What is local AI inference?
Local AI inference means running an AI language model directly on your own hardware — your laptop, desktop, or server — instead of sending requests to a remote cloud API.

When you run inference locally the model weights are loaded into your GPU or unified memory. Each token you generate requires reading those weights from memory, so memory bandwidth is the main bottleneck for decode speed.

Key benefits of running locally:
  - Full privacy: your prompts never leave your machine
  - No per-token cost or rate limits
  - Works offline once the model is downloaded
  - Latency depends only on your hardware
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>How much VRAM do I need?
It depends on the model size and quantization level. A rough rule of thumb:

  Model size     Q4 (4-bit)    Q8 (8-bit)    FP16
  7B params      ~4.3 GB       ~7.5 GB       ~14 GB
  13B params     ~7.9 GB       ~13.9 GB      ~26 GB
  70B params     ~42.7 GB      ~74.9 GB      ~140 GB

Most people use 4-bit quantization (Q4_K_M) which gives 90-95% of full quality at a fraction of the memory. A 24 GB GPU can comfortably run most 7B-13B models.
Estimated: 7.2 tok/s decode · 26.8s TTFT (warm) · 18 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

It fits through host-memory offload, and offload is the main reason performance drops.

CPU or host-memory offload is active

About 20% of the working set spills out of accelerator memory, which usually hurts latency and sustained decode throughput.

Very little memory headroom

You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.

Best improvement path

Remove offload with more accelerator memory

Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Increase host RAM if you keep offloading

This setup may need roughly 2.7 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	D	Very compromised (needs ~3.2 GB host RAM)	8.0 tok/s	13142 ms	4K
Coding	F	Too heavy	6.7 tok/s	29094 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	6.0 tok/s	47289 ms	4K
Reasoning	F	Too heavy	7.2 tok/s	31617 ms	4K
RAG	F	Too heavy	6.0 tok/s	59112 ms	4K

Quantization options

How Aya Expanse 32B (32B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB (20.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_KBest for your GPU	2	12.5 GB	Low	B56
Q3_K_S	3	15.7 GB	Low	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Aya Expanse 32B on your machine.

Run

ollama run aya-expanse:32b

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Aya Expanse 32B well

RTX 3090 24GBBudget pick

24 GB VRAM (+4)936 GB/s (+576)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.24 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 233%.

~$1,499 MSRP

RTX 4090 24GBNVIDIA upgrade

24 GB VRAM (+4)1008 GB/s (+648)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.28 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 289%.

~$1,599 MSRP

RTX 5090 32GBBest value

32 GB VRAM (+12)1792 GB/s (+1432)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.66.9 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

~$1,999 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 4000 Ada 20GB run Aya Expanse 32B?

Yes, RTX 4000 Ada 20GB can run Aya Expanse 32B at NVFP4 quantization (Very compromised (needs ~2.7 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 25.2 GB which exceeds available memory, but at NVFP4 it needs only 23.6 GB. Expected decode speed: 9.5 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Aya Expanse 32B need?

Aya Expanse 32B (32B parameters) requires approximately 25.2 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On RTX 4000 Ada 20GB, it fits at NVFP4 using 23.6 GB.

What is the best quantization for Aya Expanse 32B?

The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB the best fitting quantization is NVFP4, which uses 23.6 GB.

What speed will Aya Expanse 32B run at on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB?

On RTX 4000 Ada 20GB, Aya Expanse 32B achieves approximately 9.5 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 20370ms using NVFP4 quantization.

Can RTX 4000 Ada 20GB run Aya Expanse 32B for coding?

For coding workloads, Aya Expanse 32B on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB receives a F grade with 6.7 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can Aya Expanse 32B use on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB?

On RTX 4000 Ada 20GB, Aya Expanse 32B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context at NVFP4 quantization. The model's official context limit is 8K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 4000 Ada 20GB See all hardware for Aya Expanse 32B

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