Can Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct run on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

YES — Runs Great

B57Good

Estimated from fit model

Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct needs ~8.1 GB VRAM. RTX 2080 Ti 11GB has 11.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~82 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: MediumStack: 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) — 8.1 GB, 82.0 tok/s, Runs well

8.1 GB required11.0 GB available

74% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

82.0 tok/s

TTFT

2360 ms

Safe context

65K

Memory

8.1 GB / 11.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.9 GB

KV Cache0.9 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.1 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsMeta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
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: 82.0 tok/s decode · 2.4s TTFT (warm) · 205 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Older PCIe generation

PCIe 3.0 is workable, but it compounds the penalty when you offload heavily or try to scale across multiple cards.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Runs well	82.0 tok/s	1287 ms	65K
Coding	B	Runs well	82.0 tok/s	2360 ms	65K
Agentic Coding	C	Tight fit	82.0 tok/s	3432 ms	65K
Reasoning	B	Runs well	82.0 tok/s	2789 ms	65K
RAG	C	Tight fit	82.0 tok/s	4290 ms	65K

Quantization options

How Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB (11.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.1 GB	Low	C51
Q3_K_S	3	3.9 GB	Low	C52
NVFP4	4	4.5 GB	Medium	C53
Q4_K_M	4	4.9 GB	Medium	C53
Q5_K_M	5	5.8 GB	High	C53
Q6_KBest for your GPU	6	6.6 GB	High	C52
Q8_0	8	8.6 GB	Very High	F0
F16	16	16.4 GB	Maximum	F0

Get started

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

Run

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

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 2080 Ti 11GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Yes, RTX 2080 Ti 11GB can run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 82.0 tok/s.

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

Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B parameters) requires approximately 8.1 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 RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

On RTX 2080 Ti 11GB, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct achieves approximately 82.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2360ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 2080 Ti 11GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for coding?

For coding workloads, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB receives a B grade with 82.0 tok/s and 65K context.

What context window can Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct use on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

On RTX 2080 Ti 11GB, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct can safely use up to 65K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 2080 Ti 11GB See all hardware for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

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