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RTX 3090 24GB LLM Calculator — What Can It Run?

Check which models fit on a RTX 3090 24GB: max parameters per precision, cache headroom and estimated tokens/sec.

Memory needed (GB)
Headroom on this card (GB)
Max params at this quant (B)
Est. decode speed (tok/s)

RTX 3090 24GB: 24 GB, 936 GB/s, ~35.6 TFLOPS FP16. Used RTX 3090s are the local-LLM community's favorite deal: 24 GB of 936 GB/s memory — the same capacity class as a 4090 at a fraction of the price, and NVLink pairs combine into an effective 48 GB.

Formula

needed = params × bpw ÷ 8 + reserve · fits if ≤ 24 GB · decode tok/s ≈ 0.6 × 936 GB/s ÷ weight-GB (bandwidth-bound)
References: NVIDIA/Apple official RTX 3090 24GB specifications; llama.cpp quantization size tables

About RTX 3090 24GB LLM Calculator — What Can It Run?

"Will it run?" is the first question of local AI, and for the RTX 3090 24GB this calculator answers it precisely: enter any model's parameter count and quantization and get the memory bill against this card's 24 GB, the largest model it can hold at that quant, and a bandwidth-derived decode-speed estimate (token generation streams the whole model per token, so 936 GB/s is the speed limit that matters). Used RTX 3090s are the local-LLM community's favorite deal: 24 GB of 936 GB/s memory — the same capacity class as a 4090 at a fraction of the price, and NVLink pairs combine into an effective 48 GB.

How to use RTX 3090 24GB LLM Calculator — What Can It Run?

  1. 1Enter your values into RTX 3090 24GB LLM Calculator — What Can It Run? — sensible, domain-typical defaults are pre-filled so you see a real result immediately.
  2. 2The result recomputes live using the formula shown on the page; there is no button to press.
  3. 3Adjust any input to compare scenarios, then read the worked example to see the substituted numbers.

Why use RTX 3090 24GB LLM Calculator — What Can It Run??

  • Computes RTX 3090 24GB LLM instantly in your browser — no sign-up, no upload, no server round-trip.
  • 100% free and unlimited, with the exact formula shown: needed = params × bpw ÷ 8 + reserve.
  • Runs entirely client-side, so every value you enter stays private on your device.
  • Live recompute as you type, with a worked example and authoritative references for trust.

Frequently asked questions

Is a used 3090 still the best value for local AI?+

For LLM inference, usually yes: capacity and bandwidth are what decode speed needs, and the 3090 matches the 4090's 24 GB while its 936 GB/s is within 10%. The 4090's doubled compute mostly shows in prompt processing and diffusion, not chat decode.

Can two 3090s run 70B models?+

Yes — 2× 24 GB runs Llama-3-70B at 4-bit (~38 GB plus cache) with layers split across cards (device_map or tensor parallel). NVLink helps but PCIe works; expect 10–15 tokens/s, genuinely usable for a local 70B.

How is the tokens/sec estimate for the RTX 3090 24GB derived?+

Decode is memory-bound: each token reads every weight once, so speed ≈ effective bandwidth ÷ model size. We assume ~60% of the 936 GB/s peak is achievable, matching llama.cpp benchmarks within ~20%. Prompt prefill is compute-bound and much faster per token.

Why reserve memory beyond the weights?+

The KV cache grows with context (use our per-model KV-cache calculators), CUDA/Metal runtimes take hundreds of MB, and allocator fragmentation wastes more. The default reserve suits 2–8K contexts; long-context work needs significantly more.

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