Can K EXAONE 236B A23B run on RTX A2000 12GB?

Q: What should I upgrade first if K EXAONE 236B A23B feels slow on RTX A2000 12GB?

Add more VRAM headroom. The first useful upgrade is more dedicated VRAM so you can fit the model without shrinking context or dropping to a much lower quant.

NO — Won't Fit

F0Won't run

Estimated from fit model

K EXAONE 236B A23B needs ~174.0 GB but RTX A2000 12GB only has 12.0 GB. Try a smaller quantization or lighter model.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: No fitBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Memory capacity

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) — 174.0 GB, exceeds 12.0 GB available

174.0 GB required12.0 GB available

1450% VRAM needed

162.0 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

2.0 tok/s

TTFT

96800 ms

Safe context

Memory

174.0 GB / 12.0 GB

Offload

90%

Memory breakdown

Weights144.0 GB

KV Cache27.7 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.2 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower

See how fast it feelsK EXAONE 236B A23B on RTX A2000 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: 2.0 tok/s decode · 96.8s TTFT (warm) · 5 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

Usable VRAM is the main blocker for this model.

Not enough usable memory

The model needs 174.0 GB, but this setup only exposes 12.0 GB of usable VRAM.

Best improvement path

Add more VRAM headroom

The first useful upgrade is more dedicated VRAM so you can fit the model without shrinking context or dropping to a much lower quant.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	F	Too heavy	2.0 tok/s	52800 ms	4K
Coding	F	Too heavy	2.0 tok/s	96800 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	2.0 tok/s	140800 ms	4K
Reasoning	F	Too heavy	2.0 tok/s	114400 ms	4K
RAG	F	Too heavy	2.0 tok/s	176000 ms	4K

Inference speed

K EXAONE 236B A23B inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for K EXAONE 236B A23B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, including multi-GPU rigs, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB at ~3 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?
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	256 GB	Q4_K_M	3.4	Heavy offload
RTX 5090 32GB	32 GB	Q4_K_M	2.0	Too big

Quantization options

How K EXAONE 236B A23B (236B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX A2000 12GB (12.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	92.0 GB	Low	F0
Q3_K_S	3	115.6 GB	Low	F0
NVFP4	4

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs K EXAONE 236B A23B well

NVIDIA B200 180GBBudget pick

180 GB VRAM (+168)8000 GB/s (+7712)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.36.2 tok/s decode

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

Raises estimated decode speed by about 1710%.

~$30,000 MSRP

B100 192GBBest value

192 GB VRAM (+180)8000 GB/s (+7712)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.39.8 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.

~$35,000 MSRP

NVIDIA GB200 192GBNVIDIA upgrade

192 GB VRAM (+180)8000 GB/s (+7712)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.39.8 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.

~$60,000 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX A2000 12GB run K EXAONE 236B A23B?

No, K EXAONE 236B A23B requires more memory than RTX A2000 12GB provides.

How much VRAM does K EXAONE 236B A23B need?

K EXAONE 236B A23B (236B parameters) requires approximately 174.0 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for K EXAONE 236B A23B?

The recommended quantization for K EXAONE 236B A23B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will K EXAONE 236B A23B run at on RTX A2000 12GB?

On RTX A2000 12GB, K EXAONE 236B A23B achieves approximately 2.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 96800ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX A2000 12GB run K EXAONE 236B A23B for coding?

For coding workloads, K EXAONE 236B A23B on RTX A2000 12GB receives a F grade with 2.0 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can K EXAONE 236B A23B use on RTX A2000 12GB?

On RTX A2000 12GB, K EXAONE 236B A23B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if K EXAONE 236B A23B feels slow on RTX A2000 12GB?

See all results for RTX A2000 12GB See all hardware for K EXAONE 236B A23B

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