Can Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct run on NVIDIA A100 80GB?

YES — Runs Great

C46Usable

Estimated from fit model

Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct needs ~15.0 GB VRAM. NVIDIA A100 80GB has 80.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~112 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: HighStack: BasicBottleneck: 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) — 15.0 GB, 112.0 tok/s, Runs well

15.0 GB required80.0 GB available

19% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

112.0 tok/s

TTFT

1729 ms

Safe context

1.1M

Memory

15.0 GB / 80.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.9 GB

KV Cache0.9 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom8.0 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsMeta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on NVIDIA A100 80GB
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: 112.0 tok/s decode · 1.7s TTFT (warm) · 280 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	112.0 tok/s	943 ms	1.1M
Coding	C	Runs well	112.0 tok/s	1729 ms	1.1M
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	112.0 tok/s	2514 ms	1.1M
Reasoning	C	Runs well	112.0 tok/s	2043 ms	1.1M
RAG	C	Runs well	112.0 tok/s	3143 ms	1.1M

Inference speed

Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~112 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?
RTX 5090 32GB	32 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
RTX 4090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
RTX 4080 Super 16GB	16 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
RTX 3090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
RX 7900 XTX 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	256 GB	Q4_K_M	112.0	Fits
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	95.1	Fits
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	90.2	Fits
RTX 4070 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	77.5	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	76.8	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	76.8	Fits
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	49.2	Fits
RTX 3060 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	48.7	Fits
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	45.1	Fits
RTX 4060 8GB	8 GB	Q4_K_M	40.7	Offloads
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB	48 GB	Q4_K_M	39.6	Fits

Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q4_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.

Quantization options

How Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA A100 80GB (80.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.1 GB	Low	D40
Q3_K_S	3	3.9 GB	Low	D40
NVFP4	4	4.5 GB	Medium	D40
Q4_K_M	4	4.9 GB	Medium	D40
Q5_K_M	5	5.8 GB	High	D40
Q6_K	6	6.6 GB	High	D40
Q8_0	8	8.6 GB	Very High	C40
F16Best for your GPU	16	16.4 GB	Maximum	C41

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-maziyarpanahi--meta-llama-3-1-8b-instruct-gguf && lms server start

Upgrade-Optionen

Hardware, die Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct gut ausführt

Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GBGünstige Wahl

128 GB Unified (+48)

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.95.1 tok/s Dekodierung

ca. $3,999 MSRP

Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GBBestes Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis

128 GB Unified (+48)

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.90.2 tok/s Dekodierung

ca. $3,999 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA A100 80GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB can run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 112.0 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct need?

Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B parameters) requires approximately 15.0 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

The recommended quantization for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct run at on NVIDIA A100 80GB?

On NVIDIA A100 80GB, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct achieves approximately 112.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 1729ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can NVIDIA A100 80GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for coding?

For coding workloads, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on NVIDIA A100 80GB receives a C grade with 112.0 tok/s and 1.1M context.

What context window can Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct use on NVIDIA A100 80GB?

On NVIDIA A100 80GB, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct can safely use up to 1.1M tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for NVIDIA A100 80GB See all hardware for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

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