Llama Guard 3 8B on NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU

Can the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU run Llama Guard 3 8B?

Yes, but slowly (offloads to RAM)

Slow (offloads to RAM). At Q6_K it needs about 7.8 GB of 6.0 GB usable and makes one decision in about 1.0 s.

Best quant: Q6_K
Time per decision: 1.0 s
Decisions per second: 1.0/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 Llama Guard 3 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 Llama Guard 3 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 Llama Guard 3 8B

Recommended for the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU: 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 llama-guard3:8b-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/mradermacher/Llama-Guard-3-8B-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/mradermacher/Llama-Guard-3-8B-GGUF:Q6_K

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/meta-llama/Llama-Guard-3-8B (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).

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

How it’s rated

Quality 67Good quality (B) · 67 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.: 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 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.	30.3 / 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.	4.7 / 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	57.0 / 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`	6.1 GB	6.0 GB	690 ms	Slowoffloads to RAM	64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	6.9 GB	6.0 GB	851 ms	Slowoffloads to RAM	65Good quality (B) · 65 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	7.8 GB	6.0 GB	1.0 s	Slowoffloads to RAM	67Good quality (B) · 67 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`	9.7 GB	6.0 GB	1.4 s	Very slowheavy RAM offload	68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 50/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	17.2 GB	6.0 GB	2.9 s	Very slowheavy RAM offload	68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 49/100 (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

68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q8_0 · 93 ms · Runs great
68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Q8_0 · 102 ms · Runs great
64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q4_K_M · 105 ms · Runs great
67Good quality (B) · 67 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q6_K · 129 ms · Runs great
67Good quality (B) · 67 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Q6_K · 164 ms · Runs well
67Good quality (B) · 67 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Q6_K · 175 ms · Runs well

Quick answers

How much memory does Llama Guard 3 8B need on the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU 6GB?

At Q6_K it needs about 7.8 GB. The NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU 6GB has 6.0 GB usable.

How fast is Llama Guard 3 8B on the NVIDIA RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU 6GB?

It makes one decision in about 1.0 s at Q6_K, 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.