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Can the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active run Code Llama 34B Instruct?

37Basic quality (D) · 37 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q6_K it needs about 31.9 GB of 40.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 39.3 tok/s.

Best quant
Q6_K
Generation speed
39.3 tok/s
Prompt processing
416 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
2.5 s
Largest safe context
16K

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active

On Linux

vLLM

Inference server · runs on vLLM

  • The full model fits in GPU memory at 8-bit, so it can batch many requests: best for serving a team or an app.
vllm serve meta-llama/CodeLlama-34b-Instruct-hf
  • Ollama One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.
  • LM Studio Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

On Windows

Ollama

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp (ggml), MLX (Apple silicon, preview)

  • One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.
  • Serves an OpenAI-compatible API that other apps and coding tools can use.
ollama run codellama:34b-instruct-q6_K
  • LM Studio Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.
  • llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.

Want an agent? Code Llama 34B Instruct supports tool use, so you can pair a llama.cpp or MLX LM server with one of these. Apps that run on this computer come first.

Coding agents

Personal assistants

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download Code Llama 34B Instruct

Recommended for the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active: Q6_K. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run codellama:34b-instruct-q6_K

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

Download the Q6_K file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/TheBloke/CodeLlama-34B-Instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/TheBloke/CodeLlama-34B-Instruct-GGUF:Q6_K

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from Meta, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/meta-llama/CodeLlama-34b-Instruct-hf (opens in a new tab)

Free Hugging Face account needed: request access on the model page, and Meta approves it (usually within minutes to a few hours).

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from Meta. The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/meta-llama/codellama (opens in a new tab)

Meta’s official Code Llama repo.

git clone https://github.com/meta-llama/codellama

Links checked 2 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 37Basic quality (D) · 37 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at Q6_K, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs great
How well it runs on the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active: speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.16.9 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when everything sits in GPU memory; fewer when part spills to system RAM.25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.14.9 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.15.0 / 15
Match score71.8 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 17.7 GB 40.0 GB 92.9 tok/s Runs great 26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 20.7 GB 40.0 GB 73.1 tok/s Runs great 31Basic quality (D) · 31 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 24.8 GB 40.0 GB 56.6 tok/s Runs great 36Basic quality (D) · 36 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 28.2 GB 40.0 GB 46.7 tok/s Runs great 36Basic quality (D) · 36 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 31.9 GB 40.0 GB 39.3 tok/s Runs great 37Basic quality (D) · 37 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 40.0 GB 40.0 GB 28.8 tok/s Runs welltight fit 38Basic quality (D) · 38 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
F16 71.7 GB 40.0 GB — Won't run 38Basic quality (D) · 38 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 5/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

Quick answers

How much memory does Code Llama 34B Instruct need on the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active?

At Q6_K it needs about 31.9 GB. The NVIDIA A800 40GB Active has 40.0 GB usable.

How fast is Code Llama 34B Instruct on the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active?

About 39.3 tok/s at Q6_K, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Code Llama 34B Instruct should I use on the NVIDIA A800 40GB Active?

Q6_K. Of the versions that fit, it is the one that runs best; when two run equally well, the check prefers the higher-rated one.

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.

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