Can StarCoder 15B run on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB?

YES — With Q2_K

B58Good

○Estimated from fit model

StarCoder 15B needs ~23.7 GB VRAM. RTX 4000 Ada 20GB has 20.0 GB. With Q2_K quantization, expect ~21 tok/s.

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

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.

StarCoder 15B at Q5_K_M needs 28.6 GB — too much for RTX 4000 Ada 20GB (20.0 GB). Runs at Q2_K (23.7 GB) with low quality.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q5_K_M (High quality) — 28.6 GB, exceeds 20.0 GB available

28.6 GB required20.0 GB available

143% VRAM needed

8.6 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

9.3 tok/s

TTFT

20740 ms

Safe context

Memory

28.6 GB / 20.0 GB

Offload

30%

Memory breakdown

Weights10.8 GB

KV Cache14.6 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom2.0 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower

See how fast it feelsStarCoder 15B on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort:

def quicksort(arr):
 if len(arr) <= 1:
 return arr
 pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
 left = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
 middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
 right = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
 return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

# Example usage
numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]
print(quicksort(numbers)) # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10]

The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]:
 """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm.

 Args:
 arr: List of integers to sort.

 Returns:
 A new sorted list.
 """
 if len(arr) <= 1:
 return arr
 pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
 left = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
 middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
 right = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
 return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 9.3 tok/s decode · 20.7s TTFT (warm) · 23 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 20% 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 0.9 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Runs with offload	17.4 tok/s	6076 ms	7K
Coding	F	Too heavy	9.3 tok/s	20740 ms	7K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	4.0 tok/s	70789 ms	7K
Reasoning	F	Too heavy	9.3 tok/s	24510 ms	7K
RAG	F	Too heavy	4.0 tok/s	88487 ms	7K

Quantization options

How StarCoder 15B (15B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB (20.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	5.9 GB	Low	A73
Q3_K_S	3	7.4 GB	Low	A74
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run StarCoder 15B on your machine.

Run

lms load starcoder && lms server start

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs StarCoder 15B well

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 5090 32GBBudget pick

32 GB VRAM (+12)1792 GB/s (+1432)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.113.4 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.

~$1,999 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 32GBBest value

32 GB VRAM (+12)896 GB/s (+536)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.71.1 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.

~$2,499 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 5000 Ada 32GBNVIDIA upgrade

32 GB VRAM (+12)576 GB/s (+216)

Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.43.5 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.

~$4,000 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

See all results for RTX 4000 Ada 20GB See all hardware for StarCoder 15B

URL: https://willitrunai.com/can-run/starcoder-15b-on-rtx-4000-ada-20gb

⇱

Can StarCoder 15B run on RTX 4000 Ada 20GB?

YES — With Q2_K

Choose the run profile you care about

Memory breakdown

See how fast it feels

What limits this setup

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Quantization options

Get started

Hardware that runs StarCoder 15B well

Frequently asked questions