RUNLOCALAIv38
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RUNLOCALAI · v38
Will it run? / NVIDIA RTX 4090 48GB (China-mod) / creative

What can NVIDIA RTX 4090 48GB (China-mod) run for creative?

Build: NVIDIA RTX 4090 48GB (China-mod) + — + 32 GB RAM (windows)

Memory: 48 GB VRAM + 32 GB system RAM
Runner: llama.cpp / Ollama (CUDA)
AnyChatCodingAgentsReasoningVisionLong contextCreative

Runs comfortably
209 models

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

#1Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B
8B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 14.7 GBHeadroom: 33.3 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run hermes3:8b
77
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
8.50 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
0.43 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~248 ms (fast)
Model details →
#2Gemma 2 9B Instruct
9B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 16.3 GBHeadroom: 31.7 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run gemma2:9b
69
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
9.56 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
0.49 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~279 ms (fast)
Model details →
#3Dolphin 3.0 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
dolphin
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 5.2 GBHeadroom: 42.8 GBTTFT: instant
362
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~93 ms (instant)
Model details →
#4Hermes 3 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 5.2 GBHeadroom: 42.8 GBTTFT: instant
362
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~93 ms (instant)
Model details →
#5Gemma 2 2B Instruct
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.1 GBHeadroom: 43.9 GBTTFT: instant
543
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.21 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.07 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~62 ms (instant)
Model details →
#6Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 5.0 GBHeadroom: 43.0 GBTTFT: instant
ollama run gemma4:e2b
308
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
2.13 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.11 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~62 ms (instant)
Model details →
#7ColPali v1.3
3B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 0VRAM: 3.7 GBHeadroom: 44.3 GBTTFT: instant
362
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
0.00 GB
Activations
0.09 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~93 ms (instant)
Model details →
#8Gemma 4 E4B (Effective 4B)
4B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 8.3 GBHeadroom: 39.7 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run gemma4:e4b
154
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.25 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~124 ms (fast)
Model details →
#9Gemma 3 4B
4B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 8.3 GBHeadroom: 39.7 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run gemma3:4b
154
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.25 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~124 ms (fast)
Model details →
#10Turkish Gemma 9B T1
9B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 12.0 GBHeadroom: 36.0 GBTTFT: fast
121
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
5.43 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
0.28 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~279 ms (fast)
Model details →
#11CodeGemma 7B
7B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 38.3 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run codegemma:7b
155
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~217 ms (fast)
Model details →
#12YTU Turkish Gemma 9B v0.1
9.2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 12.2 GBHeadroom: 35.8 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run alibayram/turkish-gemma-9b-v0.1:latest
118
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
5.55 GB
KV cache
4.60 GB
Activations
0.29 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~285 ms (fast)
Model details →

Runs with tradeoffs
15 models

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

Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 70B
70B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 54.9 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~13% of layers run on CPU
ollama run hermes3:70b
16
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
8.75 GB
Activations
2.12 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →
Hermes 4 70B FP8
70B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 54.9 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~13% of layers run on CPU
16
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
8.75 GB
Activations
2.12 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →
Gemma 3 27B
27B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 45.4 GBHeadroom: 2.6 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.6 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:27b
23
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
28.69 GB
KV cache
13.50 GB
Activations
1.44 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~837 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
ALIA 40b instruct 2601
40B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 47.2 GBHeadroom: 0.8 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 0.8 GB headroom left for context growth
27
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
24.15 GB
KV cache
20.00 GB
Activations
1.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1240 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
70B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 46.8 GBHeadroom: 1.2 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.2 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run llama3.3:70b
16
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
0.67 GB
Activations
2.12 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B
70B
deepseek
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 54.9 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~13% of layers run on CPU
ollama run deepseek-r1:70b
16
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
8.75 GB
Activations
2.12 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
70B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 54.9 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~13% of layers run on CPU
ollama run llama3.1:70b
16
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
8.75 GB
Activations
2.12 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct
70B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 54.9 GBHeadroom: 12.3 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~13% of layers run on CPU
ollama run nemotron:70b
16
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
8.75 GB
Activations
2.12 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →

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: 49 new comfortable, 24 new tradeoff

  • • all-MiniLM-L6-v2
  • • Piper
  • • Whisper Tiny
  • • Whisper Base
Shop this upgrade↗

Upgrade to NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM

see current pricing

80 GB VRAM (vs your 48 GB) plus a bandwidth jump from ~1008 GB/s to ~2039 GB/s.

Unlocks: 64 new comfortable

  • • all-MiniLM-L6-v2
  • • Piper
  • • Whisper Tiny
  • • Whisper Base
Shop this upgrade↗

Add a second NVIDIA RTX 4090 48GB (China-mod)

~$2400

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: 74 new comfortable

  • • all-MiniLM-L6-v2
  • • Piper
  • • Whisper Tiny
  • • Whisper Base
Shop this upgrade↗

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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 (48 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 (48 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 (48 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 (48 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 (48 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—

How to read these numbers

Measured here
Measured here - RunLocalAI ran this exact combo on owner hardware with public evidence.

Source-backed
Source-backed / community - a reproduced public source supports the speed, but it is not labeled as owner-measured.

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

Estimated
Estimated - formula based on VRAM bandwidth and model architecture; not a benchmark row.

RunLocalAI Will-It-Run Framework →

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