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October 13, 2026No. 164
Home / Will it run? / Qwen3 8B
Alibaba Qwen · Qwen3

Will Qwen3 8B run on my GPU?

8.2B parameters, 32,768-token context, Apache-2.0. At Q4_K_M the weights come to about 4.6 GiB; add 1.5 GiB for the runtime and you need roughly 6.1 GiB of VRAM before context.

Weights by quant

GiB
Q4_K_M · the everyday quant4.6 GiB
Q8_0 · near-lossless8.1 GiB
FP16 · full weights15.3 GiB
Runtime reserve1.5 GiB

Card by card

18 of 18 fit at Q4
CardVRAMQ4_K_MQ8_0FP16Headroom at Q4Buy
GeForce RTX 5090NVIDIA 32GB YesYesYes 25.9 GiB $8,757 →
GeForce RTX 3090 (used)NVIDIA · used market 24GB YesYesYes 17.9 GiB $2,404 →
GeForce RTX 4090 (used)NVIDIA · used market 24GB YesYesYes 17.9 GiB $4,663 →
Radeon RX 7900 XTXAMD 24GB YesYesYes 17.9 GiB $1,552 →
GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GBNVIDIA 16GB YesYesOffload 9.9 GiB $1,146 →
GeForce RTX 5070 TiNVIDIA 16GB YesYesOffload 9.9 GiB $1,792 →
GeForce RTX 5080NVIDIA 16GB YesYesOffload 9.9 GiB $2,399 →
Radeon RX 7800 XTAMD 16GB YesYesOffload 9.9 GiB $834 →
Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GBAMD 16GB YesYesOffload 9.9 GiB $812 →
Radeon RX 9070AMD 16GB YesYesOffload 9.9 GiB $1,052 →
Radeon RX 9070 XTAMD 16GB YesYesOffload 9.9 GiB $1,194 →
Arc B580Intel 12GB YesYesOffload 5.9 GiB $446 →
GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (used)NVIDIA · used market 12GB YesYesOffload 5.9 GiB $588 →
GeForce RTX 4070 SuperNVIDIA · used market 12GB YesYesOffload 5.9 GiB $1,156 →
GeForce RTX 5070NVIDIA 12GB YesYesOffload 5.9 GiB $1,086 →
Arc B570Intel 10GB YesTightOffload 3.9 GiB $299 →
GeForce RTX 5060NVIDIA 8GB YesOffloadNo 1.9 GiB $550 →
GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GBNVIDIA 8GB YesOffloadNo 1.9 GiB $809 →

Headroom is what remains for the KV cache after weights and the 1.5 GiB reserve. How far it stretches depends on the architecture: grouped-query models are frugal, older dense models are not. If the table says tight, plan on a shorter context or a lower quant. Parameter count from the model's own card. The Buy column opens live Amazon listings; those links may earn us a commission.

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