Can the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB run pythia-160m?
IT FITS
Yes. 9 of 9 formats evaluated fit in 12 GB, at 2,048 tokens. No published file exists for this pair, so every size is rebuilt from the pinned architecture. The best quality that fits is FP16, needing 1.30 GB and running at an estimated 1633 tokens per second.
Fitting in memory is not the same as loading. Whether the runtime and version you have supports this architecture and format on this machine has not been tested here.
Find the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB: Amazon ↗ · eBay (new and used) ↗Store links may pay us a commission. They never decide which card is suggested — the memory arithmetic does.
How long a conversation. At FP16, this pair holds 2,048 tokens of context — roughly 1,536 words — needing 1.30 GB. That is EleutherAI's own configured maximum of 2,048 tokens, not the card running out. A larger device does not extend it; a documented RoPE or YaRN extension might, and is a separate question from this one.
Every format evaluated
No published file exists for this pair, so every size is rebuilt from the pinned architecture. The Basis column says which is which for each row. Decode and first-token figures are calibrated estimates, not runs on this card.
| Format | Needs | Of 12 GB | Fits | Decode | First token | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | 1.30 GB | 11% | yes | ~1633 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q8_0 | 1.10 GB | 9% | yes | ~2614 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q6_K | 1.05 GB | 9% | yes | ~3095 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q5_K_M | 1.03 GB | 9% | yes | ~3304 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q5_0 | 1.02 GB | 9% | yes | ~3346 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q4_K_M | 1.01 GB | 8% | yes | ~3529 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q4_0 | 1.00 GB | 8% | yes | ~3623 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q3_K_M | 0.98 GB | 8% | yes | ~3804 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
| Q2_K | 0.96 GB | 8% | yes | ~4185 tok/s | no comparable peak | size range |
Sized at 2,048 tokens of context with the whole model resident — weights, the KV cache and the runtime reserve, offload off. Speed is only quoted for a format that fits: a rate for a configuration that cannot load is not a fact about anything.
Why the first-token figure is the same on every row
First token is modelled from the arithmetic the prompt requires, and that count does not change with the weight format — which is why it reads the same on every row. Real prefill does vary by format, because a quantized matmul is a different kernel; this model does not capture that, and the figure should be read as an order of magnitude rather than a ranking between formats.
What the labels mean
- published data
- Read from a published source — a file's byte count, a model's configuration or a manufacturer's specification — or exact arithmetic on such values. Not a measurement on a machine.
- reconstructed size
- Weight size reconstructed from the pinned architecture, because no published file exists.
- size range
- Only a lower and an upper bound are claimed for this weight size.
- estimate
- Calculated from sourced inputs by a stated method; an estimate, not a measurement.
This page fixes the context at 2,048 tokens and one device. Batch, concurrent users, KV-cache format, clusters and rental cost are all in the calculator, already set to this pairing.
Open in the calculator →Everything the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB runsBest models for 12 GB
pythia-160m’s architecture is read from its publisher’s own config.json at a pinned revision, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB’s 12 GB and 912 GB/s come from the manufacturer’s specification. How far each figure can be trusted is published, per format and worst case included, on the accuracy scorecard.
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