Can Gemma 2 9B run on RX 6900 XT 16GB?

YES — Runs Great

B69Good

○Estimated from fit model

Gemma 2 9B needs ~13.1 GB VRAM. RX 6900 XT 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~40 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: MediumStack: StandardBottleneck: Balanced

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.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 13.1 GB, 42.3 tok/s, Runs well

13.1 GB required16.0 GB available

82% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

42.3 tok/s

TTFT

4577 ms

Safe context

Memory

13.1 GB / 16.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache5.1 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsGemma 2 9B on RX 6900 XT 16GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>What is local AI inference?
Local AI inference means running an AI language model directly on your own hardware — your laptop, desktop, or server — instead of sending requests to a remote cloud API.

When you run inference locally the model weights are loaded into your GPU or unified memory. Each token you generate requires reading those weights from memory, so memory bandwidth is the main bottleneck for decode speed.

Key benefits of running locally:
 - Full privacy: your prompts never leave your machine
 - No per-token cost or rate limits
 - Works offline once the model is downloaded
 - Latency depends only on your hardware
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>How much VRAM do I need?
It depends on the model size and quantization level. A rough rule of thumb:

 Model size Q4 (4-bit) Q8 (8-bit) FP16
 7B params ~4.3 GB ~7.5 GB ~14 GB
 13B params ~7.9 GB ~13.9 GB ~26 GB
 70B params ~42.7 GB ~74.9 GB ~140 GB

Most people use 4-bit quantization (Q4_K_M) which gives 90-95% of full quality at a fraction of the memory. A 24 GB GPU can comfortably run most 7B-13B models.
Estimated: 42.3 tok/s decode · 4.6s TTFT (warm) · 106 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

No major red flags

This recommendation has enough memory headroom and acceptable estimated speed for the selected workload.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Runs well	40.3 tok/s	2621 ms	8K
Coding	B	Runs well	40.3 tok/s	4806 ms	8K
Agentic Coding	C	Very compromised	22.9 tok/s	12285 ms	8K
Reasoning	B	Runs well	40.3 tok/s	5679 ms	8K
RAG	C	Very compromised	22.9 tok/s	15357 ms	8K

Quantization options

How Gemma 2 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on RX 6900 XT 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	B62
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	B63
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Gemma 2 9B on your machine.

Run

ollama run gemma2

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Gemma 2 9B well

RX 7900 XT 20GBBudget pick

20 GB VRAM (+4)800 GB/s (+288)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 65%.69.6 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 65%.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$899 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX A4500 20GBBest value

20 GB VRAM (+4)640 GB/s (+128)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 71%.72.4 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 71%.