RUNLOCALAIv38
→WILL IT RUNBEST GPUCOMPARETROUBLESHOOTSTARTPULSEMODELSHARDWARETOOLSBENCH
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RUNLOCALAI · v38
Will it run? / NVIDIA RTX 4090 48GB (China-mod) / long context

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

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
107 models

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

#1Phi-3.5 Mini Instruct
3.8B
phi
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 16.1 GBHeadroom: 31.9 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run phi3.5:3.8b
162
tok/s
E
Weights
4.04 GB
KV cache
1.90 GB
Activations
8.39 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~118 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#2Gemma 4 E4B (Effective 4B)
4B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 16.5 GBHeadroom: 31.5 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run gemma4:e4b
154
tok/s
E
Weights
4.25 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
8.40 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~124 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#3Falcon Mamba 7B
7B
falcon
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 17.9 GBHeadroom: 30.1 GBTTFT: fast
155
tok/s
E
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
8.40 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~217 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#4Codestral Mamba 7B
7B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 17.9 GBHeadroom: 30.1 GBTTFT: fast
155
tok/s
E
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
8.40 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~217 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#5Ministral 3B Instruct
3B
mistral
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 13.4 GBHeadroom: 34.6 GBTTFT: instant
362
tok/s
E
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
8.28 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~93 ms (instant)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#6Ministral 8B Instruct
8B
mistral
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 19.1 GBHeadroom: 28.9 GBTTFT: fast
136
tok/s
E
Weights
4.83 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
8.43 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~248 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#7Jamba 1.5 Mini
52B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 43.3 GBHeadroom: 4.7 GBTTFT: fast
90
tok/s
E
Weights
31.39 GB
KV cache
6.50 GB
Activations
3.62 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~372 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#8Qwen 2.5 7B Instruct
7B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 18.3 GBHeadroom: 29.7 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run qwen2.5:7b
88
tok/s
E
Weights
7.44 GB
KV cache
0.47 GB
Activations
8.56 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~217 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#9Qwen 3 8B
8B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 22.9 GBHeadroom: 25.1 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run qwen3:8b
77
tok/s
E
Weights
8.50 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
8.62 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~248 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#10InternLM 2.5 7B Chat
7B
internlm
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 17.9 GBHeadroom: 30.1 GBTTFT: fast
155
tok/s
E
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
8.40 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~217 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#11Mistral Nemo 12B Instruct
12B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 29.4 GBHeadroom: 18.6 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run mistral-nemo:12b
51
tok/s
E
Weights
12.75 GB
KV cache
6.00 GB
Activations
8.83 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~372 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
#12Qwen 3 14B
14B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 32.6 GBHeadroom: 15.4 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run qwen3:14b
44
tok/s
E
Weights
14.88 GB
KV cache
7.00 GB
Activations
8.94 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~434 ms (fast)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →

Runs with tradeoffs
22 models

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

Nemotron 3 Nano (30B-A3B)
30B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 44.0 GBHeadroom: 4.0 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 4.0 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run nemotron3:nano
36
tok/s
E
Weights
18.11 GB
KV cache
15.00 GB
Activations
9.10 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~930 ms (noticeable)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Qwen 3 30B-A3B
30B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 44.0 GBHeadroom: 4.0 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 4.0 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run qwen3:30b
36
tok/s
E
Weights
18.11 GB
KV cache
15.00 GB
Activations
9.10 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~930 ms (noticeable)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Gemma 4 31B Dense
31B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 45.1 GBHeadroom: 2.9 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.9 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma4:31b
35
tok/s
E
Weights
18.72 GB
KV cache
15.50 GB
Activations
9.13 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~961 ms (noticeable)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Qwen 3 32B
32B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 46.3 GBHeadroom: 1.7 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.7 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run qwen3:32b
34
tok/s
E
Weights
19.32 GB
KV cache
16.00 GB
Activations
9.16 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~992 ms (noticeable)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Qwen 2.5 32B Instruct
32B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 46.3 GBHeadroom: 1.7 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.7 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run qwen2.5:32b
34
tok/s
E
Weights
19.32 GB
KV cache
16.00 GB
Activations
9.16 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~992 ms (noticeable)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
70B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 57.0 GBHeadroom: 10.2 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~16% of layers run on CPU
ollama run llama3.1:70b
16
tok/s
E
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
8.75 GB
Activations
4.16 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 70B Instruct
70B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 57.0 GBHeadroom: 10.2 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~16% of layers run on CPU
ollama run nemotron:70b
16
tok/s
E
Weights
42.26 GB
KV cache
8.75 GB
Activations
4.16 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2169 ms (slow)
Model details →Run-on benchmark page →
Qwen 2.5 72B Instruct
72B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 58.5 GBHeadroom: 8.7 GBTTFT: slow
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~18% of layers run on CPU
ollama run qwen2.5:72b
15
tok/s
E
Weights
43.47 GB
KV cache
9.00 GB
Activations
4.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~2231 ms (slow)
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: 17 new comfortable, 28 new tradeoff

  • • Gemma 3 1B
  • • Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
  • • Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
  • • Whisper Large v3
Shop this upgrade↗

Upgrade to NVIDIA H100 SXM

see current pricing

80 GB VRAM (vs your 48 GB) plus a bandwidth jump from ~1008 GB/s to ~3350 GB/s.

Unlocks: 40 new comfortable

  • • Gemma 3 1B
  • • Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
  • • Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
  • • QwQ 32B Preview
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: 46 new comfortable

  • • Gemma 3 1B
  • • Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
  • • Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
  • • QwQ 32B Preview
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 (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.

—
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.

—
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.

—

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.