Can Qwen3.5 9B run on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

YES — Runs Great

B57Good

Estimated from fit model

Qwen3.5 9B needs ~8.8 GB VRAM. RTX 2080 Ti 11GB has 11.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~73 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: MediumStack: 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) — 8.8 GB, 72.9 tok/s, Runs well

8.8 GB required11.0 GB available

80% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

72.9 tok/s

TTFT

2655 ms

Safe context

49K

Memory

8.8 GB / 11.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache1.1 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.1 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsQwen3.5 9B on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
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: 72.9 tok/s decode · 2.7s TTFT (warm) · 182 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Older PCIe generation

PCIe 3.0 is workable, but it compounds the penalty when you offload heavily or try to scale across multiple cards.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Runs well	72.9 tok/s	1448 ms	49K
Coding	B	Runs well	72.9 tok/s	2655 ms	49K
Agentic Coding	C	Tight fit	72.9 tok/s	3861 ms	49K
Reasoning	B	Runs well	72.9 tok/s	3137 ms	49K
RAG	C	Tight fit	72.9 tok/s	4826 ms	49K

Quantization options

How Qwen3.5 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB (11.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	C51
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	C53
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Qwen3.5 9B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
  --hf-repo "unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF" \
  --hf-file "Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
  -c 4096 -ngl 99

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Qwen3.5 9B well

RTX 5070 12GBBudget pick

12 GB VRAM (+1)672 GB/s (+56)

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.77.1 tok/s decode

~$549 MSRP

RTX 3080 12GBBest value

12 GB VRAM (+1)912 GB/s (+296)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 73%.126 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 73%.

~$799 MSRP

RTX 3080 Ti 12GBNVIDIA upgrade

12 GB VRAM (+1)912 GB/s (+296)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 69%.122.9 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 69%.

~$1,199 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 2080 Ti 11GB run Qwen3.5 9B?

Yes, RTX 2080 Ti 11GB can run Qwen3.5 9B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 72.9 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Qwen3.5 9B need?

Qwen3.5 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 8.8 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Qwen3.5 9B?

The recommended quantization for Qwen3.5 9B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Qwen3.5 9B run at on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

On RTX 2080 Ti 11GB, Qwen3.5 9B achieves approximately 72.9 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2655ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 2080 Ti 11GB run Qwen3.5 9B for coding?

For coding workloads, Qwen3.5 9B on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB receives a B grade with 72.9 tok/s and 49K context.

What context window can Qwen3.5 9B use on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

On RTX 2080 Ti 11GB, Qwen3.5 9B can safely use up to 49K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 2080 Ti 11GB See all hardware for Qwen3.5 9B

Embed this result▼

Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.

<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/hf-unsloth--qwen3-5-9b-gguf-on-rtx-2080-ti-11gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>

Preview: