Can Yi 34B Chat run on RTX 4090 24GB?

BARELY — Tight on Memory

D39Poor

Estimated from fit model

Yi 34B Chat needs ~27.7 GB VRAM. RTX 4090 24GB has 24.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~13 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: HighStack: StandardBottleneck: Host offload

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) — 27.7 GB, 12.8 tok/s, Very compromised (needs ~2.8 GB host RAM)

27.7 GB required24.0 GB available

115% VRAM needed

3.7 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Very compromised (needs ~2.8 GB host RAM)

Decode

12.8 tok/s

TTFT

15114 ms

Safe context

Memory

27.7 GB / 24.0 GB

Offload

10%

Memory breakdown

Weights20.7 GB

KV Cache3.7 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom2.4 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi 34B Chat on RTX 4090 24GB
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: 12.8 tok/s decode · 15.1s TTFT (warm) · 32 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

It fits through host-memory offload, and offload is the main reason performance drops.

CPU or host-memory offload is active

About 10% of the working set spills out of accelerator memory, which usually hurts latency and sustained decode throughput.

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

Remove offload with more accelerator memory

Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

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

Increase host RAM if you keep offloading

This setup may need roughly 2.8 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	D	Runs with offload (needs ~1.5 GB host RAM)	14.8 tok/s	7139 ms	4K
Coding	D	Very compromised (needs ~2.8 GB host RAM)	12.8 tok/s	15114 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	9.9 tok/s	28551 ms	4K
Reasoning	D	Very compromised (needs ~2.8 GB host RAM)	12.8 tok/s	17862 ms	4K
RAG	F	Too heavy	9.9 tok/s	35688 ms

Quantization options

How Yi 34B Chat (34B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4090 24GB (24.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	13.3 GB	Low	C52
Q3_K_SBest for your GPU	3	16.7 GB	Low	C51

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

RTX 5090 32GBBudget pick

32 GB VRAM (+8)1792 GB/s (+784)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.40.7 tok/s decode

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 218%.

~$1,999 MSRP

RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 32GBBest value

32 GB VRAM (+8)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.39.4 tok/s decode

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 208%.

~$2,499 MSRP

RTX 5000 Ada 32GBNVIDIA upgrade

32 GB VRAM (+8)

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.24.1 tok/s decode

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

Raises estimated decode speed by about 88%.

~$4,000 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 4090 24GB run Yi 34B Chat?

Yes, RTX 4090 24GB can run Yi 34B Chat with a D grade (Very compromised (needs ~2.8 GB host RAM)). Expected decode speed: 12.8 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Yi 34B Chat need?

Yi 34B Chat (34B parameters) requires approximately 27.7 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 RTX 4090 24GB?

On RTX 4090 24GB, Yi 34B Chat achieves approximately 12.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 15114ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 4090 24GB run Yi 34B Chat for coding?

For coding workloads, Yi 34B Chat on RTX 4090 24GB receives a D grade with 12.8 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can Yi 34B Chat use on RTX 4090 24GB?

On RTX 4090 24GB, Yi 34B Chat can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 200K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Yi 34B Chat feels slow on RTX 4090 24GB?

Remove offload with more accelerator memory. Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.

See all results for RTX 4090 24GB See all hardware for Yi 34B Chat

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