Can Nous Hermes 1.0 run on RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB?

YES — With Q2_K

B64Good
Estimated from fit model

Nous Hermes 1.0 needs ~18.5 GB VRAM. RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q2_K quantization, expect ~86 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: MediumStack: 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.

Nous Hermes 1.0 at Q4_K_M needs 20.5 GB — too much for RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB (16.0 GB). Runs at Q2_K (18.5 GB) with low quality.
Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) 20.5 GB, exceeds 16.0 GB available
20.5 GB required16.0 GB available
128% VRAM needed

4.5 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

52.3 tok/s

TTFT

3700 ms

Safe context

10K

Memory

20.5 GB / 16.0 GB

Offload

20%

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB
KV Cache12.2 GB
Runtime1.2 GB
Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower
See how fast it feelsNous Hermes 1.0 on RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Solve: If a train travels at 60 mph for 2.5 hours, how far does it go?
Let me work through this step by step. Given information: - Speed = 60 mph (miles per hour) - Time = 2.5 hours Formula: Distance = Speed x Time Calculation: Distance = 60 mph x 2.5 h = 150 miles The train travels 150 miles. Double-check: at 60 mph the train covers 60 miles each hour. In half an hour it covers 30 miles. So in 2.5 hours: 60 + 60 + 30 = 150 miles. Confirmed.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>What if the train stops for 20 minutes halfway?
The stop doesn't change the total distance covered while moving, but it affects total trip time. Breakdown: - First half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles - Stop: 20 minutes (no distance) - Second half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles Total distance: 150 miles (same) Total time: 2.5 h + 0.33 h = 2.83 hours Average speed: 150 / 2.83 = 53 mph The distance stays the same but average speed drops to 53 mph because of the stop.
Estimated: 52.3 tok/s decode · 3.7s TTFT (warm) · 131 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 0.5 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatATight fit117.5 tok/s899 ms10K
CodingFToo heavy52.3 tok/s3700 ms10K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy19.6 tok/s14390 ms10K
ReasoningFToo heavy52.3 tok/s4373 ms10K
RAGFToo heavy19.6 tok/s17988 ms10K

Inference speed

Nous Hermes 1.0 inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Nous Hermes 1.0 at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~126 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 / MacMemoryQuantSpeed (tok/s)Fits?
NVIDIARTX 5090 32GB
32 GBQ4_K_M126.0Fits
NVIDIARTX 4090 24GB
24 GBQ4_K_M126.0Tight
RX 7900 XTX 24GB
24 GBQ4_K_M125.9Tight
NVIDIARTX 3090 24GB
24 GBQ4_K_M119.3Tight
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB
256 GBQ4_K_M101.4Fits
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB
128 GBQ4_K_M84.5Fits
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB
128 GBQ4_K_M80.1Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
128 GBQ4_K_M68.3Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB
64 GBQ4_K_M68.3Fits
NVIDIARTX 4080 Super 16GB
16 GBQ4_K_M49.5Too big
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB
64 GBQ4_K_M43.7Fits
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
64 GBQ4_K_M40.1Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB
48 GBQ4_K_M35.2Fits
NVIDIARTX 4070 12GB
12 GBQ4_K_M17.4Too big
NVIDIARTX 3060 12GB
12 GBQ4_K_M11.0Too big
NVIDIARTX 4060 8GB
8 GBQ4_K_M5.4Too big

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 Nous Hermes 1.0 (9B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
3.5 GB
LowB68
Q3_K_S
3
4.4 GB
LowB69
NVFP4
4
5.0 GB
MediumB69
Q4_K_M
4
5.5 GB
MediumB70
Q5_K_M
5
6.5 GB
HighA71
Q6_K
6
7.4 GB
HighA72
Q8_0Best for your GPU
8
9.6 GB
Very HighA72
F16
16
18.5 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Nous Hermes 1.0 on your machine.

Run

lms load Nous-Hermes-1.0 && lms server start

Upgrade-Optionen

Hardware, die Nous Hermes 1.0 gut ausführt

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB run Nous Hermes 1.0?

Yes, RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB can run Nous Hermes 1.0 at Q2_K quantization (Very compromised (needs ~0.5 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 20.5 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q2_K it needs only 18.5 GB. Expected decode speed: 86.1 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Nous Hermes 1.0 need?

Nous Hermes 1.0 (9B parameters) requires approximately 20.5 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB, it fits at Q2_K using 18.5 GB.

What is the best quantization for Nous Hermes 1.0?

The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB the best fitting quantization is Q2_K, which uses 18.5 GB.

What speed will Nous Hermes 1.0 run at on RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB?

On RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB, Nous Hermes 1.0 achieves approximately 86.1 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2247ms using Q2_K quantization.

Can RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB run Nous Hermes 1.0 for coding?

For coding workloads, Nous Hermes 1.0 on RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB receives a F grade with 52.3 tok/s and 10K context.

What context window can Nous Hermes 1.0 use on RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB?

On RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB, Nous Hermes 1.0 can safely use up to 13K tokens of context at Q2_K quantization. The model's official context limit is 16K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Nous Hermes 1.0 feels slow on RTX 5080 Laptop 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 Laptop 16GBSee all hardware for Nous Hermes 1.0
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