Can Gemma 2 9B run on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB?

Q: What should I upgrade first if Gemma 2 9B feels slow on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB?

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 Offload

C54Usable

Estimated from fit model

Gemma 2 9B needs ~12.7 GB VRAM. Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB has 12.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~23 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: LowStack: StandardBottleneck: 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.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 12.7 GB, 23.3 tok/s, Runs with offload (needs ~0.3 GB host RAM)

12.7 GB required12.0 GB available

106% VRAM needed

0.7 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Runs with offload (needs ~0.3 GB host RAM)

Decode

23.3 tok/s

TTFT

8318 ms

Safe context

Memory

12.7 GB / 12.0 GB

Offload

10%

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache5.1 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom1.2 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsGemma 2 9B on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB
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: 23.3 tok/s decode · 8.3s TTFT (warm) · 58 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 10% 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 0.3 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	B	Tight fit	35.1 tok/s	3012 ms	8K
Coding	C	Runs with offload (needs ~0.3 GB host RAM)	23.3 tok/s	8318 ms	8K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	11.4 tok/s	24683 ms	8K
Reasoning	C	Runs with offload (needs ~0.3 GB host RAM)	23.3 tok/s	9830 ms	8K
RAG	F	Too heavy	11.4 tok/s	30854 ms

Quantization options

How Gemma 2 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB (12.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	B64
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	B66
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Gemma 2 9B on your machine.

Run

ollama run gemma2

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Gemma 2 9B well

RX 7600 XT 16GBBudget pick

16 GB VRAM (+4)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.24.2 tok/s decode

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

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$329 MSRP

RX 9060 XT 16GBBest value

16 GB VRAM (+4)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.29.2 tok/s decode

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

Raises estimated decode speed by about 25%.

~$349 MSRP

RX 9070 16GBAMD upgrade

16 GB VRAM (+4)640 GB/s (+208)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.57.5 tok/s decode

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

Raises estimated decode speed by about 147%.

~$479 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB run Gemma 2 9B?

Yes, Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB can run Gemma 2 9B with a C grade (Runs with offload (needs ~0.3 GB host RAM)). Expected decode speed: 23.3 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Gemma 2 9B need?

Gemma 2 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 12.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Gemma 2 9B?

The recommended quantization for Gemma 2 9B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Gemma 2 9B run at on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB?

On Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB, Gemma 2 9B achieves approximately 23.3 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 8318ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB run Gemma 2 9B for coding?

For coding workloads, Gemma 2 9B on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB receives a C grade with 23.3 tok/s and 8K context.

What context window can Gemma 2 9B use on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB?

On Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB, Gemma 2 9B can safely use up to 8K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 8K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Gemma 2 9B feels slow on Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB?

See all results for Radeon RX 6850M XT 12GB See all hardware for Gemma 2 9B

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