Hardware guide / 8 GB VRAM

What LLM can an RTX 4060 8GB run?

Q: What LLM can an RTX 4060 8GB run?

With a 10 percent usable-memory reserve and 20 percent inference headroom, the generic one-card weight floor reaches an 8B INT4, 3B INT8, or 3B FP16 tier. Named models still need their actual artifact, context, KV cache, and runtime allocations checked.

Q: Can an RTX 4060 run Qwen3 8B?

The one-sequence INT4 planning profile on this page reaches 5.26 GiB at 4K context and 5.93 GiB at 8K, both below the 7.2 GiB usable-memory budget. The exact artifact and runtime still require validation.

Q: Can an RTX 4060 run Qwen3 8B at 32K context?

Not under this fully GPU-resident profile with a BF16 KV cache and 20 percent runtime headroom. The 32K planning target reaches 9.98 GiB, while the 8GB card has a 7.2 GiB usable planning budget.

Q: Can an RTX 4060 run a 13B model?

A generic 13B INT4 weight-only plan reaches 7.26 GiB with the stated headroom, narrowly above this page's 7.2 GiB usable budget before KV cache. Lower-bit artifacts, less reserve, or CPU offload can move the boundary, but require measurement.

Eight gigabytes is a context-sensitive 8B INT4 tier. Qwen3 8B clears this planning model at 4K and 8K, then the full 16K profile crosses the one-card boundary.

Open the 8 GB model finder →

Fast answer

The generic weight-only floor

INT4
8B listed tier · 12.88B arithmetic ceiling

INT8
3B listed tier · 6.44B arithmetic ceiling

FP16 / BF16
3B listed tier · 3.22B arithmetic ceiling

Default reserve
8 × 0.90 ÷ 1.20 = 6 GiB for weights

Editable evidence

Where Qwen3 8B crosses the 8GB boundary

The same model and precision can fit or miss depending on context. Each card opens the calculator with the architecture, reserve, and headroom already filled in.

Qwen3 8B · INT4 · 4K5.26 GiBFits with about 1.94 GiB margin → Qwen3 8B · INT4 · 8K5.93 GiBFits with about 1.27 GiB margin → Qwen3 8B · INT4 · 16K7.28 GiBNarrowly exceeds the 7.2 GiB budget → Qwen3 8B · INT4 · 32K9.98 GiBExceeds the budget by about 2.78 GiB → Generic 13B · INT4 · weights only7.26 GiBMisses before context or KV cache → RTX 4060 Ti 16GB comparison14.4 GiBSee what doubling VRAM changes →

Decision boundary

The model name alone does not answer the fit question.

The four Qwen3 profiles hold weights and runtime headroom constant. Only the BF16 KV-cache context changes.

Profile	Planning target	8GB result
Qwen3 8B INT4 · 4K	5.26 GiB	Fits with 1.94 GiB margin
Qwen3 8B INT4 · 8K	5.93 GiB	Fits with 1.27 GiB margin
Qwen3 8B INT4 · 16K	7.28 GiB	Narrow paper miss
Qwen3 8B INT4 · 32K	9.98 GiB	Does not fit fully on GPU

Capacity is only gate one

Context is a budget.
In this profile the BF16 KV cache grows from 0.56 GiB at 4K to 4.5 GiB at 32K.

Small changes move a tight fit.
KV-cache quantization or a smaller reserve can change the 16K result, but must be benchmarked.

Fit is not throughput.
Bandwidth, kernels, laptop power limits, offload, and batching decide delivered speed.

Primary sources

Inputs you can inspect.

NVIDIA lists the RTX 4060 with 8GB GDDR6. The Qwen3 profiles reuse the architecture inputs and primary references documented in the ResearchAudio Qwen3 worksheet; this page adds explicit 4K-to-32K comparisons for the 8GB card.

Official NVIDIA RTX 4060 family specifications → Open the Qwen3 GPU worksheet → Compare the 12GB RTX 3060 boundary →