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⇱ MPT-30B-Instruct on NVIDIA A100 40GB? No — Alternatives


Can MPT-30B-Instruct run on NVIDIA A100 40GB?

YES — With Q4_K_M

B62Good
Estimated from fit model

MPT-30B-Instruct needs ~46.9 GB VRAM. NVIDIA A100 40GB has 40.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~38 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: HighStack: BasicBottleneck: Host offload
Share:

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.

MPT-30B-Instruct at Q5_K_M needs 50.2 GB — too much for NVIDIA A100 40GB (40.0 GB). Runs at Q4_K_M (46.9 GB) with medium quality. 4 quantization levels fit.
Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q5_K_M (High quality) — 50.2 GB, exceeds 40.0 GB available
50.2 GB required40.0 GB available
126% VRAM needed

10.2 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

28.6 tok/s

TTFT

6761 ms

Safe context

8K

Memory

50.2 GB / 40.0 GB

Offload

20%

Memory breakdown

Weights21.6 GB
KV Cache23.4 GB
Runtime1.2 GB
Headroom4.0 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower
See how fast it feelsMPT-30B-Instruct on NVIDIA A100 40GB
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: 28.6 tok/s decode · 6.8s TTFT (warm) · 72 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 2.7 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatARuns with offload61.7 tok/s1712 ms8K
CodingFToo heavy28.6 tok/s6761 ms8K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy12.8 tok/s22019 ms8K
ReasoningFToo heavy28.6 tok/s7990 ms8K
RAGFToo heavy12.8 tok/s27523 ms8K

Quantization options

How MPT-30B-Instruct (30B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA A100 40GB (40.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
11.7 GB
LowB66
Q3_K_S
3
14.7 GB
LowB67
NVFP4
4
16.8 GB
MediumB68
Q4_K_M
4
18.3 GB
MediumB68
Q5_K_M
5
21.6 GB
HighB69
Q6_K
6
24.6 GB
HighB69
Q8_0Best for your GPU
8
32.1 GB
Very HighB69
F16
16
61.5 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run MPT-30B-Instruct on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \ --hf-repo "mosaicml/mpt-30b-instruct" \ --hf-file "mpt-30b-instruct-Q5_K_M.gguf" \ -c 4096 -ngl 99

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs MPT-30B-Instruct well

👁 NVIDIA
RTX A6000 48GBBudget pick
48 GB VRAM (+8)
B
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.18.2 tok/s decode

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

~$4,650 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48GBBest value
48 GB VRAM (+8)
B
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.36 tok/s decode

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

Raises estimated decode speed by about 26%.

~$4,999 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
NVIDIA L40 48GBNVIDIA upgrade
48 GB VRAM (+8)
B
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.21 tok/s decode

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

~$5,500 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
NVIDIA H100 80GBBiggest leap
80 GB VRAM (+40)3350 GB/s (+1795)
A
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.132.9 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.

~$40,000 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

See all results for NVIDIA A100 40GBSee all hardware for MPT-30B-Instruct