StableLM 2 12B needs ~26.5 GB VRAM. Quadro RTX 8000 48GB has 48.0 GB. With Q5_K_M quantization, expect ~50 tok/s.
Operating mode
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.
Select quantization to explore
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
50.1 tok/s
TTFT
3867 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
26.5 GB / 48.0 GB
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.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | C | Runs well | 50.1 tok/s | 2109 ms | 4K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 50.1 tok/s | 3867 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 50.1 tok/s | 5625 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 50.1 tok/s | 4570 ms | 4K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 50.1 tok/s | 7031 ms | 4K |
Inference speed
Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for StableLM 2 12B at Q5_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~103 tok/s. Speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so cards that fit the whole model in VRAM run far faster than ones that offload to system RAM.
| GPU / Mac | Memory | Quant | Speed (tok/s) | Fits? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 GB | Q5_K_M | 103.1 | Fits | |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | 256 GB | Q5_K_M | 60.1 | Fits |
| 24 GB | Q5_K_M | 53.5 | Offloads | |
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q5_K_M | 50.1 | Fits |
RX 7900 XTX 24GB | 24 GB | Q5_K_M | 47.8 | Offloads |
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q5_K_M | 47.5 | Fits |
| 24 GB | Q5_K_M | 45.3 | Offloads | |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 GB | Q5_K_M | 32.7 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q5_K_M | 32.7 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q5_K_M | 25.9 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q5_K_M | 23.8 | Fits |
| 16 GB | Q5_K_M | 23.4 | Too big | |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB | 48 GB | Q5_K_M | 20.0 | Fits |
| 12 GB | Q5_K_M | 8.2 | Too big | |
| 12 GB | Q5_K_M | 4.8 | Too big | |
| 8 GB | Q5_K_M | 3.4 | Too big |
Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q5_K_M; real tokens/sec varies with prompt length, context, batch size, and runtime build. Prompt processing (prefill) is faster than the decode figures shown here.
How StableLM 2 12B (12B params) fits at each quantization level on Quadro RTX 8000 48GB (48.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 4.7 GB | Low | C41 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 5.9 GB | Low | C42 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 6.7 GB | Medium | C42 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 7.3 GB | Medium | C42 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 8.6 GB | High | C42 |
Q6_K | 6 | 9.8 GB | High | C43 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 12.8 GB | Very High | C43 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 24.6 GB | Maximum | C47 |
Copy-paste commands to run StableLM 2 12B on your machine.
Run
docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
--hf-repo "stabilityai/stablelm-2-12b-chat" \
--hf-file "stablelm-2-12b-chat-Q5_K_M.gguf" \
-c 4096 -ngl 99Yes, Quadro RTX 8000 48GB can run StableLM 2 12B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 50.1 tok/s.
StableLM 2 12B (12B parameters) requires approximately 26.5 GB of memory with Q5_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for StableLM 2 12B is Q5_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On Quadro RTX 8000 48GB, StableLM 2 12B achieves approximately 50.1 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3867ms using Q5_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, StableLM 2 12B on Quadro RTX 8000 48GB receives a C grade with 50.1 tok/s and 4K context.
On Quadro RTX 8000 48GB, StableLM 2 12B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 4K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/stablelm-2-12b-on-quadro-rtx-8000-48gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
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