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URL: https://willitrunai.com/can-run/baichuan-13b-on-rtx-4000-ada-20gb


Can Baichuan 13B run on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB?

YES — With Q4_K_M

C55Usable
Estimated from fit model

Baichuan 13B needs ~23.3 GB VRAM. RTX 4000 Ada 20GB has 20.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~19 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Host offload
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Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.

Current mode

Balanced

Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.

Baichuan 13B at Q5_K_M needs 24.8 GB — too much for RTX 4000 Ada 20GB (20.0 GB). Runs at Q4_K_M (23.3 GB) with medium quality. 4 quantization levels fit.
Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q5_K_M (High quality) — 24.8 GB, exceeds 20.0 GB available
24.8 GB required20.0 GB available
124% VRAM needed

4.8 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

14.6 tok/s

TTFT

13230 ms

Safe context

8K

Memory

24.8 GB / 20.0 GB

Offload

20%

Memory breakdown

Weights9.4 GB
KV Cache12.2 GB
Runtime1.2 GB
Headroom2.0 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower
See how fast it feelsBaichuan 13B on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Solve: If a train travels at 60 mph for 2.5 hours, how far does it go?
Let me work through this step by step. Given information: - Speed = 60 mph (miles per hour) - Time = 2.5 hours Formula: Distance = Speed x Time Calculation: Distance = 60 mph x 2.5 h = 150 miles The train travels 150 miles. Double-check: at 60 mph the train covers 60 miles each hour. In half an hour it covers 30 miles. So in 2.5 hours: 60 + 60 + 30 = 150 miles. Confirmed.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>What if the train stops for 20 minutes halfway?
The stop doesn't change the total distance covered while moving, but it affects total trip time. Breakdown: - First half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles - Stop: 20 minutes (no distance) - Second half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles Total distance: 150 miles (same) Total time: 2.5 h + 0.33 h = 2.83 hours Average speed: 150 / 2.83 = 53 mph The distance stays the same but average speed drops to 53 mph because of the stop.
Estimated: 14.6 tok/s decode · 13.2s TTFT (warm) · 37 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

It fits through host-memory offload, and offload is the main reason performance drops.

CPU or host-memory offload is active

About 10% of the working set spills out of accelerator memory, which usually hurts latency and sustained decode throughput.

Very little memory headroom

You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.

Best improvement path

Remove offload with more accelerator memory

Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Increase host RAM if you keep offloading

This setup may need roughly 1.1 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatBTight fit30.6 tok/s3451 ms8K
CodingFToo heavy14.6 tok/s13230 ms8K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy6.3 tok/s44731 ms8K
ReasoningFToo heavy14.6 tok/s15635 ms8K
RAGFToo heavy6.3 tok/s55913 ms8K

Quantization options

How Baichuan 13B (13B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB (20.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
5.1 GB
LowB63
Q3_K_S
3
6.4 GB
LowB64
NVFP4
4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Baichuan 13B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \ --hf-repo "baichuan-inc/Baichuan-13B-Chat" \ --hf-file "Baichuan-13B-Chat-Q5_K_M.gguf" \ -c 4096 -ngl 99

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Baichuan 13B well

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 3090 24GBBudget pick
24 GB VRAM (+4)936 GB/s (+576)
B
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.48.5 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

~$1,499 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 4090 24GBBest value
24 GB VRAM (+4)1008 GB/s (+648)
B
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.56.7 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

~$1,599 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell 24GBNVIDIA upgrade
24 GB VRAM (+4)672 GB/s (+312)
B
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.42.7 tok/s decode

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.

Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.

~$1,599 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

See all results for RTX 4000 Ada 20GBSee all hardware for Baichuan 13B
7.3 GB
Medium
B65
Q4_K_M
4
7.9 GB
MediumB65
Q5_K_M
5
9.4 GB
HighB66
Q6_K
6
10.7 GB
HighB67
Q8_0Best for your GPU
8
13.9 GB
Very HighB66
F16
16
26.7 GB
MaximumF0

Remove offload with more accelerator memory. Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.