GPT-OSS 20B needs ~29.5 GB VRAM. NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB has 108.8 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~31 tok/s.
Operating mode
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.
Select quantization to explore
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
31.4 tok/s
TTFT
6157 ms
Safe context
128K
Memory
29.5 GB / 108.8 GB
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
Shared-memory contention still exists
The OS, browser, and inference runtime all compete for the same physical memory pool, so real-world headroom is less forgiving than raw capacity suggests.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | A | Runs well | 31.4 tok/s | 3358 ms | 128K |
| Coding | A | Runs well | 31.4 tok/s | 6157 ms | 128K |
| Agentic Coding | A | Runs well | 31.4 tok/s | 8955 ms | 128K |
| Reasoning | A | Runs well | 31.4 tok/s | 7276 ms | 128K |
| RAG | A | Runs well | 31.4 tok/s | 11194 ms | 128K |
Inference speed
Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for GPT-OSS 20B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~231 tok/s. Speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so cards that fit the whole model in VRAM run far faster than ones that offload to system RAM.
| GPU / Mac | Memory | Quant | Speed (tok/s) | Fits? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 GB | Q4_K_M | 230.5 | Fits | |
| 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 147.1 | Fits | |
RX 7900 XTX 24GB | 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 132.7 | Fits |
| 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 125.8 | Fits | |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | 256 GB | Q4_K_M | 106.9 | Fits |
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 89.1 | Fits |
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.5 | Fits |
| 16 GB | Q4_K_M | 68.2 | Heavy offload | |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 66.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 66.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 46.1 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 42.2 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB | 48 GB | Q4_K_M | 40.4 | Fits |
| 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 24.2 | Too big | |
| 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 15.2 | Too big | |
| 8 GB | Q4_K_M | 5.7 | Too big |
Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q4_K_M; real tokens/sec varies with prompt length, context, batch size, and runtime build. Prompt processing (prefill) is faster than the decode figures shown here.
How GPT-OSS 20B (21B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB (92.2 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 8.2 GB | Low | A78 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 10.3 GB | Low | A78 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 11.8 GB | Medium | A78 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 12.8 GB | Medium | A78 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 15.1 GB | High | A79 |
Q6_K | 6 | 17.2 GB | High | A79 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 22.5 GB | Very High | A80 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 43.1 GB | Maximum | A84 |
Copy-paste commands to run GPT-OSS 20B on your machine.
Run
ollama run gpt-ossYour hardware
| Model | Params | Grade | Decode | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123B | S | 2.4 tok/s | ||
| 30.5B | S | 24.8 tok/s | ||
| 27B | A | 10.7 tok/s | ||
| 27B | A | 10.8 tok/s | ||
| 122B | S | 6.6 tok/s |
Yes, NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB can run GPT-OSS 20B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 31.4 tok/s.
GPT-OSS 20B (21B parameters) requires approximately 29.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for GPT-OSS 20B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB, GPT-OSS 20B achieves approximately 31.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 6157ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, GPT-OSS 20B on NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB receives a A grade with 31.4 tok/s and 128K context.
On NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB, GPT-OSS 20B can safely use up to 128K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 128K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Not always. NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB can often fit larger models thanks to unified memory, but a discrete GPU with dedicated high-bandwidth VRAM may still decode faster once the model fits. For this combination, the important distinction is capacity versus sustained throughput.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/gpt-oss-20b-on-dgx-spark-128gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
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