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August 23, 2026No. 113
Home / Will it run? / Gemma 2 9B IT / GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (used)
GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (used) ยท 12GB GDDR6

Can the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (used) run Gemma 2 9B IT?

Fits comfortably at Q4_K_M.

Gemma 2 9B IT is 9.24B parameters. At Q4_K_M the weights are about 5.2 GiB; with the 1.5 GiB runtime reserve that is 6.7 GiB against the card's 12GB, leaving about 5.3 GiB for context.

All three quants

12GB card
QuantWeightsWith reserveVerdictHeadroom
Q4_K_Mthe everyday quant5.2 GiB6.7 GiBFits comfortably5.3 GiB
Q8_0near-lossless9.1 GiB10.6 GiBFits, tight on context1.4 GiB
FP16full weights17.2 GiB18.7 GiBOnly with CPU offloadshort 6.7 GiB

Verdict rules: fits comfortably when weights plus reserve sit within 85% of VRAM; tight when they fit with little left for context; CPU offload when they exceed VRAM by up to 2x (runs, slowly, with layers in system RAM); no beyond that. The KV cache per token depends on the model's architecture and is not modelled here.

Good match. Get the card.

The GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (used) clears Gemma 2 9B IT at Q4_K_M and at Q8_0. Live listings below; this page was rebuilt 2026-08-23.

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About the model

Gemma 2 9B IT by Google: 8,192-token native context, text, released 2024 under the Gemma Terms of Use. Model card →

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