Can Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 run on RTX 3050 8GB?

YES — Tight Fit

C51Usable

Estimated from fit model

Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 needs ~7.1 GB VRAM. RTX 3050 8GB has 8.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~35 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: TightBandwidth: Very lowStack: BasicBottleneck: Memory bandwidth

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) — 7.1 GB, 34.6 tok/s, Tight fit

7.1 GB required8.0 GB available

89% VRAM used

Fit status

Tight fit

Decode

34.6 tok/s

TTFT

5592 ms

Safe context

34K

Memory

7.1 GB / 8.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.3 GB

KV Cache0.8 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom0.8 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsMistral 7B Instruct v0.2 on RTX 3050 8GB
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: 34.6 tok/s decode · 5.6s TTFT (warm) · 87 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	Tight fit	34.6 tok/s	3050 ms	34K
Coding	C	Tight fit	34.6 tok/s	5592 ms	34K
Agentic Coding	C	Runs with offload	34.6 tok/s	8133 ms	34K
Reasoning	C	Tight fit	34.6 tok/s	6608 ms	34K
RAG	C	Runs with offload	34.6 tok/s	10167 ms	34K

Quantization options

How Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 (7B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3050 8GB (8.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	2.7 GB	Low	C53
Q3_K_S	3	3.4 GB	Low	C54
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-thebloke--mistral-7b-instruct-v0-2-gguf && lms server start

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 well

RTX 3060 12GBBudget pick

12 GB VRAM (+4)360 GB/s (+136)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 61%.55.6 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 61%.

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

~$329 MSRP

RTX 5060 Ti 16GBBest value

16 GB VRAM (+8)448 GB/s (+224)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 88%.65 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 88%.

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

~$449 MSRP

RTX 5070 12GBNVIDIA upgrade

12 GB VRAM (+4)672 GB/s (+448)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 183%.98 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 183%.

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

~$549 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 3050 8GB run Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2?

Yes, RTX 3050 8GB can run Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 with a C grade (Tight fit). Expected decode speed: 34.6 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 need?

Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 (7B parameters) requires approximately 7.1 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2?

The recommended quantization for Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 run at on RTX 3050 8GB?

On RTX 3050 8GB, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 achieves approximately 34.6 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 5592ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 3050 8GB run Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 for coding?

For coding workloads, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 on RTX 3050 8GB receives a C grade with 34.6 tok/s and 34K context.

What context window can Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 use on RTX 3050 8GB?

On RTX 3050 8GB, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 can safely use up to 34K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 3050 8GB See all hardware for Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2

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