Can Yi 34B Chat run on NVIDIA L40 48GB?

YES — Runs Great

C52Usable

Estimated from fit model

Yi 34B Chat needs ~30.1 GB VRAM. NVIDIA L40 48GB has 48.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~20 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: HighStack: 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) — 30.1 GB, 20.3 tok/s, Runs well

30.1 GB required48.0 GB available

63% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

20.3 tok/s

TTFT

9527 ms

Safe context

94K

Memory

30.1 GB / 48.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights20.7 GB

KV Cache3.7 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom4.8 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi 34B Chat on NVIDIA L40 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: 20.3 tok/s decode · 9.5s TTFT (warm) · 51 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	C	Runs well	20.3 tok/s	5197 ms	94K
Coding	C	Runs well	20.3 tok/s	9527 ms	94K
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	20.3 tok/s	13858 ms	94K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	20.3 tok/s	11259 ms	94K
RAG	C	Runs well	20.3 tok/s	17322 ms	94K

Quantization options

How Yi 34B Chat (34B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA L40 48GB (48.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	13.3 GB	Low	C46
Q3_K_S	3	16.7 GB	Low	C47
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Yi 34B Chat on your machine.

Run

lms load Yi-34B-Chat && lms server start

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Yi 34B Chat well

NVIDIA A100 80GBBudget pick

80 GB VRAM (+32)2039 GB/s (+1175)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 342%.89.7 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 342%.

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

~$15,000 MSRP

NVIDIA H800 80GBBest value

80 GB VRAM (+32)3000 GB/s (+2136)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 527%.127.2 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 527%.

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

~$30,000 MSRP

NVIDIA H100 PCIe 80GBNVIDIA upgrade

80 GB VRAM (+32)2000 GB/s (+1136)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 333%.87.9 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 333%.

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

~$30,000 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA L40 48GB run Yi 34B Chat?

Yes, NVIDIA L40 48GB can run Yi 34B Chat with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 20.3 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Yi 34B Chat need?

Yi 34B Chat (34B parameters) requires approximately 30.1 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Yi 34B Chat?

The recommended quantization for Yi 34B Chat is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Yi 34B Chat run at on NVIDIA L40 48GB?

On NVIDIA L40 48GB, Yi 34B Chat achieves approximately 20.3 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 9527ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can NVIDIA L40 48GB run Yi 34B Chat for coding?

For coding workloads, Yi 34B Chat on NVIDIA L40 48GB receives a C grade with 20.3 tok/s and 94K context.

What context window can Yi 34B Chat use on NVIDIA L40 48GB?

On NVIDIA L40 48GB, Yi 34B Chat can safely use up to 94K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 200K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for NVIDIA L40 48GB See all hardware for Yi 34B Chat

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