Can gemma 3 27b it run on RTX 5080 16GB?

YES — With Q3_K_S

D33Poor
Estimated from fit model

gemma 3 27b it needs ~19.2 GB VRAM. RTX 5080 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q3_K_S quantization, expect ~23 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: HighStack: BasicBottleneck: Host offload
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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.

gemma 3 27b it at Q4_K_M needs 22.4 GB — too much for RTX 5080 16GB (16.0 GB). Runs at Q3_K_S (19.2 GB) with low quality. 2 quantization levels fit.
Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) 22.4 GB, exceeds 16.0 GB available
22.4 GB required16.0 GB available
140% VRAM needed

6.4 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

14.5 tok/s

TTFT

13316 ms

Safe context

4K

Memory

22.4 GB / 16.0 GB

Offload

30%

Memory breakdown

Weights16.5 GB
KV Cache3.2 GB
Runtime1.2 GB
Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower
See how fast it feelsgemma 3 27b it on RTX 5080 16GB
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: 14.5 tok/s decode · 13.3s TTFT (warm) · 36 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 20% 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 2.2 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatFToo heavy16.9 tok/s6257 ms4K
CodingFToo heavy14.5 tok/s13316 ms4K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy11.1 tok/s25351 ms4K
ReasoningFToo heavy14.5 tok/s15737 ms4K
RAGFToo heavy11.1 tok/s31688 ms4K

Quantization options

How gemma 3 27b it (27B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 5080 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_KBest for your GPU
2
10.5 GB
LowC51
Q3_K_S
3
13.2 GB
LowF0
NVFP4
4
15.1 GB
MediumF0
Q4_K_M
4
16.5 GB
MediumF0
Q5_K_M
5
19.4 GB
HighF0
Q6_K
6
22.1 GB
HighF0
Q8_0
8
28.9 GB
Very HighF0
F16
16
55.4 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run gemma 3 27b it on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-maziyarpanahi--gemma-3-27b-it-gguf && lms server start

Upgrade-Optionen

Hardware, die gemma 3 27b it gut ausführt

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 5080 16GB run gemma 3 27b it?

Yes, RTX 5080 16GB can run gemma 3 27b it at Q3_K_S quantization (Very compromised (needs ~2.2 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 22.4 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q3_K_S it needs only 19.2 GB. Expected decode speed: 23.1 tok/s.

How much VRAM does gemma 3 27b it need?

gemma 3 27b it (27B parameters) requires approximately 22.4 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On RTX 5080 16GB, it fits at Q3_K_S using 19.2 GB.

What is the best quantization for gemma 3 27b it?

The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on RTX 5080 16GB the best fitting quantization is Q3_K_S, which uses 19.2 GB.

What speed will gemma 3 27b it run at on RTX 5080 16GB?

On RTX 5080 16GB, gemma 3 27b it achieves approximately 23.1 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 8367ms using Q3_K_S quantization.

Can RTX 5080 16GB run gemma 3 27b it for coding?

For coding workloads, gemma 3 27b it on RTX 5080 16GB receives a F grade with 14.5 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can gemma 3 27b it use on RTX 5080 16GB?

On RTX 5080 16GB, gemma 3 27b it can safely use up to 4K tokens of context at Q3_K_S quantization. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if gemma 3 27b it feels slow on RTX 5080 16GB?

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 5080 16GBSee all hardware for gemma 3 27b it
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