Can Phi 3 Mini 3.8B run on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

YES — Runs Great

B64Good

Estimated from fit model

Phi 3 Mini 3.8B needs ~13.4 GB VRAM. NVIDIA A100 40GB has 40.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~53 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: HighStack: 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) — 13.4 GB, 53.2 tok/s, Runs well

13.4 GB required40.0 GB available

34% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

53.2 tok/s

TTFT

3639 ms

Safe context

89K

Memory

13.4 GB / 40.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights2.3 GB

KV Cache5.9 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom4.0 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsPhi 3 Mini 3.8B on NVIDIA A100 40GB
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: 53.2 tok/s decode · 3.6s TTFT (warm) · 133 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	B	Runs well	53.2 tok/s	1985 ms	89K
Coding	B	Runs well	53.2 tok/s	3639 ms	89K
Agentic Coding	B	Runs well	53.2 tok/s	5293 ms	89K
Reasoning	B	Runs well	53.2 tok/s	4301 ms	89K
RAG	B	Runs well	53.2 tok/s	6617 ms	89K

Quantization options

How Phi 3 Mini 3.8B (3.799999952316284B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA A100 40GB (40.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	1.5 GB	Low	B59
Q3_K_S	3	1.9 GB	Low	B59
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Phi 3 Mini 3.8B on your machine.

Run

ollama run phi3:mini

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Phi 3 Mini 3.8B well

MacBook Pro M4 Pro 64GBBudget pick

64 GB Unified (+24)

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.53.2 tok/s decode

~$1,599 MSRP

MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GBBest value

64 GB Unified (+24)

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.53.2 tok/s decode

~$2,499 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA A100 40GB run Phi 3 Mini 3.8B?

Yes, NVIDIA A100 40GB can run Phi 3 Mini 3.8B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 53.2 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Phi 3 Mini 3.8B need?

Phi 3 Mini 3.8B (3.799999952316284B parameters) requires approximately 13.4 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Phi 3 Mini 3.8B?

The recommended quantization for Phi 3 Mini 3.8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Phi 3 Mini 3.8B run at on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

On NVIDIA A100 40GB, Phi 3 Mini 3.8B achieves approximately 53.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3639ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can NVIDIA A100 40GB run Phi 3 Mini 3.8B for coding?

For coding workloads, Phi 3 Mini 3.8B on NVIDIA A100 40GB receives a B grade with 53.2 tok/s and 89K context.

What context window can Phi 3 Mini 3.8B use on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

On NVIDIA A100 40GB, Phi 3 Mini 3.8B can safely use up to 89K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 128K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for NVIDIA A100 40GB See all hardware for Phi 3 Mini 3.8B

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