Granite Guardian 4.1 8B on NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU

Can the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU run Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?

Yes, but slowly (offloads to RAM)

Slow (offloads to RAM). At Q5_K_M it needs about 7.2 GB of 6.0 GB usable and makes one decision in about 931 ms.

Best quant: Q5_K_M
Time per decision: 931 ms
Decisions per second: 1.1/s
Input assumed: 512 tokens
Returns: Fixed labels

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU

On Windows

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Granite Guardian 4.1 8B in LM Studio

Ollama Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
llama.cpp Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.

On Linux

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Granite Guardian 4.1 8B in LM Studio

Ollama Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
llama.cpp Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.

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 Guardian 4.1 8B

Recommended for the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU: Q5_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 granite4.1-guardian:8b-q5_K_M

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the Q5_K_M file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/ibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b-GGUF:Q5_K_M

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

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

How it’s rated

Quality 81Great quality (A) · 81 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q5_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 Slowoffloads to RAM: How well it runs on the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU: 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.

PrecisionEditorial precision tier from the model’s published benchmarks, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	36.7 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when everything sits in GPU memory; fewer when part spills to system RAM.	10.0 / 25
SpeedTime for one decision against a 100 ms target: reading the input plus any tokens the model writes.	4.9 / 15
ClarityHow easy the answer is to use in code: a probability or score earns the most, written feedback before a score the least.	12.0 / 15
Match score	63.6 / 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 RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q4_K_M`	6.3 GB	6.0 GB	762 ms	Slowoffloads to RAM	79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	7.2 GB	6.0 GB	931 ms	Slowoffloads to RAM	81Great quality (A) · 81 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	8.1 GB	6.0 GB	1.1 s	Slowheavy RAM offload	83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 57/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	10.1 GB	6.0 GB	1.5 s	Very slowheavy RAM offload	84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 57/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	18.0 GB	6.0 GB	3.1 s	Very slowheavy RAM offload	84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Times are for one request with a 512-token input and about 6 tokens written. Batching servers process many requests at once.

Other hardware that runs it

84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q8_0 · 97 ms · Runs great
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Q6_K · 94 ms · Runs great
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q6_K · 132 ms · Runs great
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q6_K · 135 ms · Runs well
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Q6_K · 171 ms · Runs well
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Q6_K · 182 ms · Runs well

Quick answers

How much memory does Granite Guardian 4.1 8B need on the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU 6GB?

At Q5_K_M it needs about 7.2 GB. The NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU 6GB has 6.0 GB usable.

How fast is Granite Guardian 4.1 8B on the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU 6GB?

It makes one decision in about 931 ms at Q5_K_M, an estimate from the hardware and the size of the model.

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.