Llama Guard 3 8B on NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation

Can the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation run Llama Guard 3 8B?

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q6_K it needs about 9.9 GB of 48.0 GB usable and makes one decision in about 126 ms.

Best quant: Q6_K
Time per decision: 126 ms
Decisions per second: 8.0/s
Input assumed: 512 tokens
Returns: Fixed labels

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation

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 llama-guard3:8b-q6_K

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 llama-guard3:8b-q6_K

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 Llama Guard 3 8B

Recommended for the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation: 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 80/100 (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 RTX 6000 Ada Generation: 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.	25.0 / 25
SpeedTime for one decision against a 100 ms target: reading the input plus any tokens the model writes.	13.4 / 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	80.7 / 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 6000 Ada Generation

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q4_K_M`	8.2 GB	48.0 GB	108 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.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	9.0 GB	48.0 GB	116 ms	Runs great	65Good quality (B) · 65 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	9.9 GB	48.0 GB	126 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.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	11.8 GB	48.0 GB	147 ms	Runs well	68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	19.3 GB	48.0 GB	241 ms	Runs well	68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (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 6000 Ada Generation 48GB?

At Q6_K it needs about 9.9 GB. The NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation 48GB has 48.0 GB usable.

How fast is Llama Guard 3 8B on the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation 48GB?

It makes one decision in about 126 ms 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.