Can Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B run on RTX A4000 16GB?

YES — Runs Great

C52Usable

Estimated from fit model

Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B needs ~8.6 GB VRAM. RTX A4000 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~64 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) — 8.6 GB, 64.3 tok/s, Runs well

8.6 GB required16.0 GB available

54% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

64.3 tok/s

TTFT

3013 ms

Safe context

142K

Memory

8.6 GB / 16.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.9 GB

KV Cache0.9 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsHermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B on RTX A4000 16GB
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: 64.3 tok/s decode · 3.0s TTFT (warm) · 161 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	64.3 tok/s	1643 ms	142K
Coding	C	Runs well	64.3 tok/s	3013 ms	142K
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	64.3 tok/s	4382 ms	142K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	64.3 tok/s	3560 ms	142K
RAG	C	Runs well	64.3 tok/s	5478 ms	142K

Inference speed

Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~112 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?
RTX 5090 32GB	32 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
RTX 4090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
RTX 4080 Super 16GB	16 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0

Quantization options

How Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B (8B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX A4000 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.1 GB	Low	C47
Q3_K_S	3	3.9 GB	Low	C48
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-nousresearch--hermes-3-llama-3-1-8b-gguf && lms server start

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX A4000 16GB run Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B?

Yes, RTX A4000 16GB can run Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 64.3 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B need?

Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 8.6 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B?

The recommended quantization for Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B run at on RTX A4000 16GB?

On RTX A4000 16GB, Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B achieves approximately 64.3 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3013ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX A4000 16GB run Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B for coding?

For coding workloads, Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B on RTX A4000 16GB receives a C grade with 64.3 tok/s and 142K context.

What context window can Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B use on RTX A4000 16GB?

On RTX A4000 16GB, Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B can safely use up to 142K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX A4000 16GB See all hardware for Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B

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