Question 1

Can RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Accepted Answer

Yes, RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB can run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 49.6 tok/s.

Question 2

How much VRAM does Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct need?

Accepted Answer

Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B parameters) requires approximately 8.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

Question 3

What is the best quantization for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Accepted Answer

The recommended quantization for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Agentic Coding	B	Runs well	50.3 tok/s	5603 ms	39K
Chat	C	Runs well	50.3 tok/s	2101 ms	12K
Coding	B	Runs well	49.6 tok/s	3905 ms	23K
RAG	B	Runs well	50.3 tok/s	7003 ms	39K
Reasoning	B	Runs well	50.3 tok/s	4552 ms	23K

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.1 GB	Low	D35
Q3_K_S	3	3.9 GB	Low	D36
NVFP4	4

Can RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Memory breakdown