Can Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct run on RTX 3060 12GB?

YES — Runs Great

C55Usable

Estimated from fit model

Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct needs ~8.2 GB VRAM. RTX 3060 12GB has 12.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~49 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Balanced

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) — 8.2 GB, 48.7 tok/s, Runs well

8.2 GB required12.0 GB available

68% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

48.7 tok/s

TTFT

3976 ms

Safe context

81K

Memory

8.2 GB / 12.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.9 GB

KV Cache0.9 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.2 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsMeta Llama 3 8B Instruct on RTX 3060 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: 48.7 tok/s decode · 4.0s TTFT (warm) · 122 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

No major red flags

This recommendation has enough memory headroom and acceptable estimated speed for the selected workload.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	C	Runs well	48.7 tok/s	2169 ms	81K
Coding	C	Runs well	48.7 tok/s	3976 ms	81K
Agentic Coding	B	Runs well	48.7 tok/s	5784 ms	81K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	48.7 tok/s	4699 ms	81K
RAG	B	Runs well	48.7 tok/s	7230 ms	81K

Quantization options

How Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct (8B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3060 12GB (12.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.1 GB	Low	C50
Q3_K_S	3	3.9 GB	Low	C51
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-maziyarpanahi--meta-llama-3-8b-instruct-gguf && lms server start

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 3060 12GB run Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct?

Yes, RTX 3060 12GB can run Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 48.7 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct need?

Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct (8B parameters) requires approximately 8.2 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct?

The recommended quantization for Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct run at on RTX 3060 12GB?

On RTX 3060 12GB, Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct achieves approximately 48.7 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3976ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 3060 12GB run Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct for coding?

For coding workloads, Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct on RTX 3060 12GB receives a C grade with 48.7 tok/s and 81K context.

What context window can Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct use on RTX 3060 12GB?

On RTX 3060 12GB, Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct can safely use up to 81K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 3060 12GB See all hardware for Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct

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