How much VRAM does Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct need?

Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct (30B parameters) requires approximately 22.3 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct?

The recommended quantization for Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

Can it run?

No, Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct requires more memory than GTX 1080 8GB provides.

FWon't run

Too heavy

Using Q4_K_M in vLLM

Capabilities:

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

33.1 tok/s

TTFT

5843 ms

Safe context

Memory

22.3 GB / 8.0 GB

Weights18.3 GB

KV Cache0.8 GB

Runtime2.4 GB

Headroom0.8 GB

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	27.1 tok/s	10372 ms	11K
Chat	F	Too heavy	27.1 tok/s	3890 ms	4K
Coding	F	Too heavy	33.1 tok/s	5843 ms	6K
RAG	F	Too heavy	27.1 tok/s	12965 ms	11K
Reasoning	F	Too heavy	27.1 tok/s	8427 ms	6K

How Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct (30B params) fits at each quantization level on GTX 1080 8GB (8.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	11.7 GB	Low	F0
Q3_K_S	3	14.7 GB	Low	F0
NVFP4	4

Upgrade options

RX 7900 XTX 24GBBest value

C99.4 tok/s decode

~$999 MSRP

Mac mini M4 64GBBudget pick

C12.4 tok/s decode

~$1,099 MSRP

RTX 5090 32GBNVIDIA upgrade