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URL: https://willitrunai.com/can-run/starcoder2-15b-on-rtx-3080-10gb


Can StarCoder2 15B run on RTX 3080 10GB?

YES — With NVFP4

D37Poor
Estimated from fit model

StarCoder2 15B needs ~11.8 GB VRAM. RTX 3080 10GB has 10.0 GB. With NVFP4 quantization, expect ~42 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: MediumStack: 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.

StarCoder2 15B at Q5_K_M needs 14.2 GB — too much for RTX 3080 10GB (10.0 GB). Runs at NVFP4 (11.8 GB) with medium quality. 3 quantization levels fit.
Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q5_K_M (High quality) — 14.2 GB, exceeds 10.0 GB available
14.2 GB required10.0 GB available
142% VRAM needed

4.2 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

21.3 tok/s

TTFT

9096 ms

Safe context

4K

Memory

14.2 GB / 10.0 GB

Offload

30%

Memory breakdown

Weights10.8 GB
KV Cache1.2 GB
Runtime1.2 GB
Headroom1.0 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower
See how fast it feelsStarCoder2 15B on RTX 3080 10GB
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: 21.3 tok/s decode · 9.1s TTFT (warm) · 53 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 1.3 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatFToo heavy21.4 tok/s4938 ms4K
CodingFToo heavy19.5 tok/s9930 ms4K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy16.4 tok/s17177 ms4K
ReasoningFToo heavy19.5 tok/s11735 ms4K
RAGFToo heavy16.4 tok/s21472 ms4K

Quantization options

How StarCoder2 15B (15B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3080 10GB (10.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_KBest for your GPU
2
5.9 GB
LowC54
Q3_K_S
3
7.4 GB
LowF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run StarCoder2 15B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \ --hf-repo "bigcode/starcoder2-15b" \ --hf-file "starcoder2-15b-Q5_K_M.gguf" \ -c 4096 -ngl 99

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs StarCoder2 15B well

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 5060 Ti 16GBBudget pick
16 GB VRAM (+6)
C
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.28.6 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.

~$449 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 4060 Ti 16GBBest value
16 GB VRAM (+6)
C
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.21.7 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.

~$499 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 2000 Ada 16GBNVIDIA upgrade
16 GB VRAM (+6)
C
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.22.6 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.

~$625 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 4090 24GBBiggest leap
24 GB VRAM (+14)1008 GB/s (+248)
B
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.79 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 3080 10GBSee all hardware for StarCoder2 15B
NVFP4
4
8.4 GB
Medium
F0
Q4_K_M
4
9.2 GB
MediumF0
Q5_K_M
5
10.8 GB
HighF0
Q6_K
6
12.3 GB
HighF0
Q8_0
8
16.1 GB
Very HighF0
F16
16
30.7 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.