Can Qwen 2.5 VL 72B run on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

YES — With Q3_K_S

A80Great
Estimated from fit model

Qwen 2.5 VL 72B needs ~45.1 GB VRAM. NVIDIA A100 40GB has 40.0 GB. With Q3_K_S quantization, expect ~22 tok/s.

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

Qwen 2.5 VL 72B at Q4_K_M needs 53.7 GB — too much for NVIDIA A100 40GB (40.0 GB). Runs at Q3_K_S (45.1 GB) with low quality. 2 quantization levels fit.
Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) 53.7 GB, exceeds 40.0 GB available
53.7 GB required40.0 GB available
134% VRAM needed

13.7 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

13.0 tok/s

TTFT

14838 ms

Safe context

4K

Memory

53.7 GB / 40.0 GB

Offload

30%

Memory breakdown

Weights43.9 GB
KV Cache4.9 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom4.0 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower
See how fast it feelsQwen 2.5 VL 72B on NVIDIA A100 40GB
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: 13.0 tok/s decode · 14.8s TTFT (warm) · 33 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 4.0 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatFToo heavy14.4 tok/s7338 ms4K
CodingFToo heavy13.0 tok/s14838 ms4K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy10.9 tok/s25921 ms4K
ReasoningFToo heavy13.0 tok/s17536 ms4K
RAGFToo heavy10.9 tok/s32402 ms4K

Quantization options

How Qwen 2.5 VL 72B (72B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA A100 40GB (40.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_KBest for your GPU
2
28.1 GB
LowS88
Q3_K_S
3
35.3 GB
LowF0
NVFP4
4
40.3 GB
MediumF0
Q4_K_M
4
43.9 GB
MediumF0
Q5_K_M
5
51.8 GB
HighF0
Q6_K
6
59.0 GB
HighF0
Q8_0
8
77.0 GB
Very HighF0
F16
16
147.6 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Qwen 2.5 VL 72B on your machine.

Run

lms load Qwen2.5-VL-72B-Instruct && lms server start

Upgrade-Optionen

Hardware, die Qwen 2.5 VL 72B gut ausführt

Frequently asked questions

Can NVIDIA A100 40GB run Qwen 2.5 VL 72B?

Yes, NVIDIA A100 40GB can run Qwen 2.5 VL 72B at Q3_K_S quantization (Very compromised (needs ~4 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 53.7 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q3_K_S it needs only 45.1 GB. Expected decode speed: 21.9 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Qwen 2.5 VL 72B need?

Qwen 2.5 VL 72B (72B parameters) requires approximately 53.7 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On NVIDIA A100 40GB, it fits at Q3_K_S using 45.1 GB.

What is the best quantization for Qwen 2.5 VL 72B?

The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on NVIDIA A100 40GB the best fitting quantization is Q3_K_S, which uses 45.1 GB.

What speed will Qwen 2.5 VL 72B run at on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

On NVIDIA A100 40GB, Qwen 2.5 VL 72B achieves approximately 21.9 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 8859ms using Q3_K_S quantization.

Can NVIDIA A100 40GB run Qwen 2.5 VL 72B for coding?

For coding workloads, Qwen 2.5 VL 72B on NVIDIA A100 40GB receives a F grade with 13.0 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can Qwen 2.5 VL 72B use on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

On NVIDIA A100 40GB, Qwen 2.5 VL 72B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context at Q3_K_S quantization. The model's official context limit is 33K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Qwen 2.5 VL 72B feels slow on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

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 NVIDIA A100 40GBSee all hardware for Qwen 2.5 VL 72B
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