RUNLOCALAIv38
→WILL IT RUNBEST GPUCOMPARETROUBLESHOOTSTARTPULSEMODELSHARDWARETOOLSBENCH
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RUNLOCALAI · v38
Will it run? / NVIDIA L4 / creative

What can NVIDIA L4 run for creative?

Build: NVIDIA L4 + — + 32 GB RAM (windows)

Memory: 24 GB VRAM + 32 GB system RAM
Runner: llama.cpp / Ollama (CUDA)
AnyChatCodingAgentsReasoningVisionLong contextCreative

Runs comfortably
77 models

Ranked by fit for creative use case + predicted speed. Click a row for VRAM breakdown.

#1Dolphin 3.0 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
dolphin
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 13.4 GBHeadroom: 10.6 GB
108
tok/s
E
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
8.28 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#2Hermes 3 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 13.4 GBHeadroom: 10.6 GB
108
tok/s
E
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
8.28 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#3Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 13.2 GBHeadroom: 10.8 GB
ollama run gemma4:e2b
92
tok/s
E
Weights
2.13 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
8.30 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#4SmolLM 2 1.7B Instruct
1.7B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 11.9 GBHeadroom: 12.1 GB
190
tok/s
E
Weights
1.03 GB
KV cache
0.85 GB
Activations
8.24 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#5EXAONE 3.5 2.4B
2.4B
exaone
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 12.7 GBHeadroom: 11.3 GB
135
tok/s
E
Weights
1.45 GB
KV cache
1.20 GB
Activations
8.26 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#6Qwen 2.5 1.5B Instruct
1.5B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 11.7 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GB
215
tok/s
E
Weights
0.91 GB
KV cache
0.75 GB
Activations
8.24 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#7DeepSeek V3 Lite (16B MoE)
16B
deepseek
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 16.0 GBHeadroom: 8.0 GB
135
tok/s
E
Weights
9.66 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
2.53 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#8Qwen 2.5 Coder 1.5B
1.5B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 11.7 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GB
215
tok/s
E
Weights
0.91 GB
KV cache
0.75 GB
Activations
8.24 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#9RWKV 7 'Goose' 1.5B
1.5B
rwkv
Commercial OK
Quant: Q5_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 11.8 GBHeadroom: 12.2 GB
189
tok/s
E
Weights
1.03 GB
KV cache
0.75 GB
Activations
8.24 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#10Moondream 2
1.9B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 5.3 GBHeadroom: 18.7 GB
170
tok/s
E
Weights
1.15 GB
KV cache
0.24 GB
Activations
2.11 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#11Granite 3.0 2B Instruct
2B
granite
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 4,096VRAM: 7.7 GBHeadroom: 16.3 GB
161
tok/s
E
Weights
1.21 GB
KV cache
0.50 GB
Activations
4.16 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#12DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.5B
deepseek
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 11.7 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GB
215
tok/s
E
Weights
0.91 GB
KV cache
0.75 GB
Activations
8.24 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →

Runs with tradeoffs
49 models

Tight VRAM, partial CPU offload, or context-limited.

Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B
8B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 22.9 GBHeadroom: 1.1 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.1 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run hermes3:8b
23
tok/s
E
Weights
8.50 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
8.62 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Gemma 2 9B Instruct
9B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 20.2 GBHeadroom: 3.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.8 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma2:9b
36
tok/s
E
Weights
5.43 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
8.46 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
DeepSeek MoE 16B Base
16B
deepseek
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 4,096VRAM: 20.0 GBHeadroom: 4.0 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 4.0 GB headroom left for context growth
135
tok/s
E
Weights
9.66 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
4.58 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Dolphin 3.0 Mistral 24B
24B
dolphin
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 22.1 GBHeadroom: 1.9 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.9 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run dolphin-mistral:24b
13
tok/s
E
Weights
14.49 GB
KV cache
3.00 GB
Activations
2.77 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Gemma 3 12B
12B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 23.6 GBHeadroom: 0.4 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 0.4 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:12b
27
tok/s
E
Weights
7.25 GB
KV cache
6.00 GB
Activations
8.55 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
GLM-4 9B
9B
glm
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 20.2 GBHeadroom: 3.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.8 GB headroom left for context growth
36
tok/s
E
Weights
5.43 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
8.46 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Nemotron 3 Nano 9B
9B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 20.2 GBHeadroom: 3.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.8 GB headroom left for context growth
36
tok/s
E
Weights
5.43 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
8.46 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Yi Coder 9B
9B
yi
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 20.2 GBHeadroom: 3.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.8 GB headroom left for context growth
36
tok/s
E
Weights
5.43 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
8.46 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →

What if you upgraded?

Hypothetical scenarios. We re-ran the compatibility engine for each.

+32 GB system RAM

~$80–150

Doubles your CPU-offload working set. Helps when models don't quite fit in VRAM.

Unlocks: 7 new comfortable, 61 new tradeoff

  • • Gemma 3 1B
  • • Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
  • • Whisper Large v3 Turbo
  • • SmolLM 2 360M Instruct
Shop this upgrade↗

Upgrade to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

~$2499

32 GB VRAM (vs your 24 GB) plus a bandwidth jump from ~300 GB/s to ~1792 GB/s.

Unlocks: 35 new comfortable

  • • Gemma 3 1B
  • • Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
  • • DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B
  • • Qwen 3 8B
Shop this upgrade↗

Add a second NVIDIA L4

see current pricing

Tensor parallelism splits the model across both cards, effectively doubling VRAM. Bandwidth doesn't double — runs ~1.5× the single-card speed in practice.

Unlocks: 47 new comfortable

  • • Gemma 3 1B
  • • Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
  • • DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B
  • • Qwen 3 8B
Shop this upgrade↗

Some links above are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How we make money.

Won't run
top 5 popular models

Need more memory than you have. Shown for orientation.

DeepSeek V4 Pro (1.6T MoE)
1600B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (24 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
Qwen 3.5 235B-A17B (MoE)
397B
qwen
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (24 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
Qwen 3 235B-A22B
235B
qwen
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (24 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
Llama 4 Scout
109B
llama
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (24 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)
671B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (24 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—

How to read these numbers

M
Measured — we ran this exact combo on owner hardware.

~
Extrapolated — predicted from a measured benchmark on similar-bandwidth hardware.

E
Estimated — pure formula based on VRAM bandwidth and model architecture.

Full methodology →

Want a specific benchmark we don't have? Email support@runlocalai.co and we'll prioritize it.