Can Pixtral 12B run on NVIDIA A40 48GB?

YES — Runs Great

A72Great

Estimated from fit model

Pixtral 12B needs ~15.8 GB VRAM. NVIDIA A40 48GB has 48.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~80 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) — 15.8 GB, 79.7 tok/s, Runs well

15.8 GB required48.0 GB available

33% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

79.7 tok/s

TTFT

2428 ms

Safe context

131K

Memory

15.8 GB / 48.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights7.3 GB

KV Cache2.4 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom4.8 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsPixtral 12B on NVIDIA A40 48GB
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: 79.7 tok/s decode · 2.4s TTFT (warm) · 199 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	A	Runs well	79.7 tok/s	1325 ms	131K
Coding	A	Runs well	79.7 tok/s	2428 ms	131K
Agentic Coding	A	Runs well	79.7 tok/s	3532 ms	131K
Reasoning	A	Runs well	79.7 tok/s	2870 ms	131K
RAG	A	Runs well	79.7 tok/s	4415 ms	131K

Quantization options

How Pixtral 12B (12B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA A40 48GB (48.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	4.7 GB	Low	B65
Q3_K_S	3	5.9 GB	Low	B65
NVFP4	4	6.7 GB	Medium	B66
Q4_K_M	4	7.3 GB	Medium	B66
Q5_K_M	5	8.6 GB	High	B66
Q6_K	6	9.8 GB	High	B66
Q8_0	8	12.8 GB	Very High	B67
F16Best for your GPU	16	24.6 GB	Maximum	A71

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Pixtral 12B on your machine.

Run

ollama run pixtral

Your hardware

More models your NVIDIA A40 48GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode
Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct	30.5B	S	82.1 tok/s
Qwen 3.5 27B	27B	S	35.6 tok/s
Qwen 3.6 27B	27B	S	35.7 tok/s
Qwen 3.6 35B A3B	35B	S	69 tok/s
Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct	30B	S	84.9 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA A40 48GB run Pixtral 12B?

Yes, NVIDIA A40 48GB can run Pixtral 12B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 79.7 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Pixtral 12B need?

Pixtral 12B (12B parameters) requires approximately 15.8 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Pixtral 12B?

The recommended quantization for Pixtral 12B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Pixtral 12B run at on NVIDIA A40 48GB?

On NVIDIA A40 48GB, Pixtral 12B achieves approximately 79.7 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2428ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can NVIDIA A40 48GB run Pixtral 12B for coding?

For coding workloads, Pixtral 12B on NVIDIA A40 48GB receives a A grade with 79.7 tok/s and 131K context.

What context window can Pixtral 12B use on NVIDIA A40 48GB?

On NVIDIA A40 48GB, Pixtral 12B can safely use up to 131K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for NVIDIA A40 48GB See all hardware for Pixtral 12B

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Preview:

Workload

Grade

Fit

Decode

TTFT

Context

Chat

Runs well

79.7 tok/s

1325 ms

131K

Coding

Runs well

79.7 tok/s

2428 ms

131K

Agentic Coding

Runs well

79.7 tok/s

3532 ms

131K

Reasoning

Runs well

79.7 tok/s

2870 ms

131K

RAG

Runs well

79.7 tok/s

4415 ms

131K

Quantization options

How Pixtral 12B (12B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA A40 48GB (48.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	4.7 GB	Low	B65
Q3_K_S	3	5.9 GB	Low	B65
NVFP4	4	6.7 GB	Medium	B66
Q4_K_M	4	7.3 GB	Medium	B66
Q5_K_M	5	8.6 GB	High	B66
Q6_K	6	9.8 GB	High	B66
Q8_0	8	12.8 GB	Very High	B67
F16Best for your GPU	16	24.6 GB	Maximum	A71

Model

Params

Grade

Decode

Capabilities

Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct

30.5B

82.1 tok/s

Qwen 3.5 27B

27B

35.6 tok/s

Qwen 3.6 27B

27B

35.7 tok/s

Qwen 3.6 35B A3B

35B

69 tok/s

Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct

30B

84.9 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA A40 48GB run Pixtral 12B?

Yes, NVIDIA A40 48GB can run Pixtral 12B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 79.7 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Pixtral 12B need?

Pixtral 12B (12B parameters) requires approximately 15.8 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Pixtral 12B?

The recommended quantization for Pixtral 12B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Pixtral 12B run at on NVIDIA A40 48GB?

On NVIDIA A40 48GB, Pixtral 12B achieves approximately 79.7 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2428ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can NVIDIA A40 48GB run Pixtral 12B for coding?

For coding workloads, Pixtral 12B on NVIDIA A40 48GB receives a A grade with 79.7 tok/s and 131K context.

What context window can Pixtral 12B use on NVIDIA A40 48GB?

On NVIDIA A40 48GB, Pixtral 12B can safely use up to 131K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.