Can Samantha 7B run on Radeon RX 7700S 8GB?

Q: What should I upgrade first if Samantha 7B feels slow on Radeon RX 7700S 8GB?

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit. A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

YES — With Offload

B68Good

Estimated from fit model

Samantha 7B needs ~7.9 GB VRAM. Radeon RX 7700S 8GB has 8.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~43 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: LowStack: StandardBottleneck: 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) — 7.9 GB, 42.8 tok/s, Runs with offload

7.9 GB required8.0 GB available

99% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs with offload

Decode

42.8 tok/s

TTFT

4526 ms

Safe context

Memory

7.9 GB / 8.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.3 GB

KV Cache2.0 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom0.8 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsSamantha 7B on Radeon RX 7700S 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: 42.8 tok/s decode · 4.5s TTFT (warm) · 107 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Very little memory headroom

You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.

Best improvement path

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Tight fit	42.8 tok/s	2469 ms	4K
Coding	B	Runs with offload	42.8 tok/s	4526 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	20.6 tok/s	13676 ms	4K
Reasoning	B	Runs with offload	42.8 tok/s	5348 ms	4K
RAG	F	Too heavy	20.6 tok/s	17095 ms	4K

Quantization options

How Samantha 7B (7B params) fits at each quantization level on Radeon RX 7700S 8GB (8.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	2.7 GB	Low	B69
Q3_K_S	3	3.4 GB	Low	B70
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Samantha 7B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
  --hf-repo "cognitivecomputations/samantha-1.1-llama-7b" \
  --hf-file "samantha-1.1-llama-7b-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
  -c 4096 -ngl 99

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Samantha 7B well

RX 9060 XT 16GBBudget pick

16 GB VRAM (+8)320 GB/s (+32)

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.50.8 tok/s decode

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

~$349 MSRP

RX 7700 XT 12GBBest value

12 GB VRAM (+4)432 GB/s (+144)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 53%.65.3 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 53%.

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

~$449 MSRP

RX 6700 XT 12GBAMD upgrade

12 GB VRAM (+4)384 GB/s (+96)

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.50.3 tok/s decode

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

~$479 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can Radeon RX 7700S 8GB run Samantha 7B?

Yes, Radeon RX 7700S 8GB can run Samantha 7B with a B grade (Runs with offload). Expected decode speed: 42.8 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Samantha 7B need?

Samantha 7B (7B parameters) requires approximately 7.9 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Samantha 7B?

The recommended quantization for Samantha 7B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Samantha 7B run at on Radeon RX 7700S 8GB?

On Radeon RX 7700S 8GB, Samantha 7B achieves approximately 42.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 4526ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Radeon RX 7700S 8GB run Samantha 7B for coding?

For coding workloads, Samantha 7B on Radeon RX 7700S 8GB receives a B grade with 42.8 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can Samantha 7B use on Radeon RX 7700S 8GB?

On Radeon RX 7700S 8GB, Samantha 7B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 4K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Samantha 7B feels slow on Radeon RX 7700S 8GB?

See all results for Radeon RX 7700S 8GB See all hardware for Samantha 7B

Embed this result▼

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

<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/samantha-7b-on-rx-7700s-8gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>

Preview: