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Can the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB run Gemma 2 9B IT?

42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs well (tight fit)

Runs well (tight fit). At Q3_K_M it needs about 7.1 GB of 8.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 76.9 tok/s.

Best quant
Q3_K_M
Generation speed
76.9 tok/s
Prompt processing
1,847 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
0.6 s
Largest safe context
8K

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB

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 gemma2:9b-instruct-q3_K_M
  • LM Studio Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.
  • llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.

On Linux

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 gemma2:9b-instruct-q3_K_M
  • LM Studio Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.
  • llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.

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 Gemma 2 9B IT

Recommended for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB: Q3_K_M. 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 gemma2:9b-instruct-q3_K_M

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the Q3_K_M file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/bartowski/gemma-2-9b-it-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/bartowski/gemma-2-9b-it-GGUF:Q3_K_M

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/google/gemma-2-9b-it (opens in a new tab)

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

Official repo · GitHub

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

github.com/google-deepmind/gemma (opens in a new tab)

Google DeepMind’s official Gemma library.

git clone https://github.com/google-deepmind/gemma

Links checked 3 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at Q3_K_M, 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 welltight fit
How well it runs on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB: 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.18.9 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when everything sits in GPU memory; fewer when part spills to system RAM.24.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.15.0 / 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 score72.9 / 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 GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 6.3 GB 8.0 GB 97.7 tok/s Runs great 35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 7.1 GB 8.0 GB 76.9 tok/s Runs welltight fit 42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 8.2 GB 8.0 GB 47.6 tok/s Runs welloffloads to RAM 47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 9.2 GB 8.0 GB 24.3 tok/s Runs welloffloads to RAM 48Fair quality (C) · 48 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 58/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 10.2 GB 8.0 GB 15.6 tok/s Runs welloffloads to RAM 49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 12.4 GB 8.0 GB 8.5 tok/s Slowheavy RAM offload 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 48/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
F16 21.1 GB 8.0 GB 2.8 tok/s Very slowheavy RAM offload 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 45/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab) 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 Gemma 2 9B IT need on the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB?

At Q3_K_M it needs about 7.1 GB. The RTX 5060 Ti 8GB has 8.0 GB usable.

How fast is Gemma 2 9B IT on the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB?

About 76.9 tok/s at Q3_K_M, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Gemma 2 9B IT should I use on the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB?

Q3_K_M. 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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