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Can the NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip run Granite 3.0 2B Instruct?

26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At F16 it needs about 18.8 GB of 252 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 777 tok/s.

Best quant
F16
Generation speed
777 tok/s
Prompt processing
21,901 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
0.3 s
Largest safe context
4K

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip

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 granite3-dense:2b-instruct-fp16
  • 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 granite3-dense:2b-instruct-fp16
  • 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.
  • LM Studio Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

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 Granite 3.0 2B Instruct

Recommended for the NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip: F16. 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 granite3-dense:2b-instruct-fp16

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the F16 file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/bartowski/granite-3.0-2b-instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/bartowski/granite-3.0-2b-instruct-GGUF:F16

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-3.0-2b-instruct (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at F16, 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 GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip: 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.11.7 / 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.15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.1.7 / 15
Match score53.4 / 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 GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 14.6 GB 252 GB 5,442 tok/s Runs great 18Basic quality (D) · 18 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 49/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 14.8 GB 252 GB 4,284 tok/s Runs great 21Basic quality (D) · 21 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (Q3_K_L) (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 15.1 GB 252 GB 3,314 tok/s Runs great 24Basic quality (D) · 24 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 52/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 15.4 GB 252 GB 2,738 tok/s Runs great 25Basic quality (D) · 25 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 52/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 15.7 GB 252 GB 2,299 tok/s Runs great 25Basic quality (D) · 25 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 16.3 GB 252 GB 1,687 tok/s Runs great 26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
F16 18.8 GB 252 GB 777 tok/s Runs great 26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (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 4K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

Quick answers

How much memory does Granite 3.0 2B Instruct need on the NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip 252GB?

At F16 it needs about 18.8 GB. The NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip 252GB has 252 GB usable.

How fast is Granite 3.0 2B Instruct on the NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip 252GB?

About 777 tok/s at F16, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Granite 3.0 2B Instruct should I use on the NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip 252GB?

F16. 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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