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Can the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 run Pixtral 12B (2409)?

50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q8_0 it needs about 16.7 GB of 32.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 90.3 tok/s.

Best quant
Q8_0
Generation speed
90.3 tok/s
Prompt processing
6,085 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
0.3 s
Largest safe context
99K

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

On Windows

Docker Model Runner

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp, vLLM

  • Handy if you already work in Docker.
docker model run hf.co/mistralai/Pixtral-12B-2409

On Linux

Docker Model Runner

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp, vLLM

  • Handy if you already work in Docker.
docker model run hf.co/mistralai/Pixtral-12B-2409
  • vLLM For one person, llama.cpp-based apps are about as fast and use smaller GGUF files.
  • SGLang For one person, llama.cpp-based apps are about as fast and use smaller GGUF files.

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 Pixtral 12B (2409)

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/mistralai/Pixtral-12B-2409 (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 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at Q8_0, 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 GeForce RTX 5090: 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.22.5 / 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.12.0 / 15
Match score74.5 / 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 5090

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 8.5 GB 32.0 GB 291 tok/s Runs great 35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 9.6 GB 32.0 GB 229 tok/s Runs great 42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 65/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 11.1 GB 32.0 GB 177 tok/s Runs great 47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 12.3 GB 32.0 GB 147 tok/s Runs great 48Fair quality (C) · 48 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 13.7 GB 32.0 GB 123 tok/s Runs great 49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 16.7 GB 32.0 GB 90.3 tok/s Runs great 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
F16 28.3 GB 32.0 GB 41.6 tok/s Runs welltight fit 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. 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 Pixtral 12B (2409) need on the RTX 5090 32GB?

At Q8_0 it needs about 16.7 GB. The RTX 5090 32GB has 32.0 GB usable.

How fast is Pixtral 12B (2409) on the RTX 5090 32GB?

About 90.3 tok/s at Q8_0, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Pixtral 12B (2409) should I use on the RTX 5090 32GB?

Q8_0. 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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