Can Qwen 3.5 9B run on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

YES — Tight Fit

S95Excellent

Estimated from fit model

Qwen 3.5 9B needs ~10.0 GB VRAM. RTX 2080 Ti 11GB has 11.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~73 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: TightBandwidth: 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) — 10.0 GB, 78.4 tok/s, Tight fit

10.0 GB required11.0 GB available

91% VRAM used

Fit status

Tight fit

Decode

78.4 tok/s

TTFT

2469 ms

Safe context

23K

Memory

10.0 GB / 11.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache2.2 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.1 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsQwen 3.5 9B on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort:

def quicksort(arr):
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

# Example usage
numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]
print(quicksort(numbers))  # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10]

The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm.

    Args:
        arr: List of integers to sort.

    Returns:
        A new sorted list.
    """
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 78.4 tok/s decode · 2.5s TTFT (warm) · 196 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	S	Runs well	78.4 tok/s	1347 ms	23K
Coding	S	Tight fit	72.9 tok/s	2655 ms	23K
Agentic Coding	A	Very compromised (needs ~0.5 GB host RAM)	45.7 tok/s	6164 ms	23K
Reasoning	S	Tight fit	78.4 tok/s	2918 ms	23K
RAG	A	Very compromised (needs ~0.5 GB host RAM)	45.7 tok/s	7705 ms	23K

Quantization options

How Qwen 3.5 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB (11.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	S92
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	S94
NVFP4	4	5.0 GB	Medium	S94
Q4_K_M	4	5.5 GB	Medium	S94
Q5_K_M	5	6.5 GB	High	S94
Q6_KBest for your GPU	6	7.4 GB	High	S93
Q8_0	8	9.6 GB	Very High	F0
F16	16	18.5 GB	Maximum	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Qwen 3.5 9B on your machine.

Run

ollama run qwen3.5:9b

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 2080 Ti 11GB run Qwen 3.5 9B?

Yes, RTX 2080 Ti 11GB can run Qwen 3.5 9B with a S grade (Tight fit). Expected decode speed: 72.9 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Qwen 3.5 9B need?

Qwen 3.5 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 10.0 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Qwen 3.5 9B?

The recommended quantization for Qwen 3.5 9B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Qwen 3.5 9B run at on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

On RTX 2080 Ti 11GB, Qwen 3.5 9B achieves approximately 72.9 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2655ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 2080 Ti 11GB run Qwen 3.5 9B for coding?

For coding workloads, Qwen 3.5 9B on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB receives a S grade with 72.9 tok/s and 23K context.

What context window can Qwen 3.5 9B use on RTX 2080 Ti 11GB?

On RTX 2080 Ti 11GB, Qwen 3.5 9B can safely use up to 23K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 2080 Ti 11GB See all hardware for Qwen 3.5 9B

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