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Can the NVIDIA H100 NVL run SmolVLM 500M Instruct?

10Basic quality (D) · 10 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 46/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At F16 it needs about 6.7 GB of 94.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 2,202 tok/s.

Best quant
F16
Generation speed
2,202 tok/s
Prompt processing
169,412 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
0.3 s
Largest safe context
8K

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA H100 NVL

On Linux

vLLM

Inference server · runs on 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.
vllm serve HuggingFaceTB/SmolVLM-500M-Instruct
  • LM Studio Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.
  • SGLang The full model fits in GPU memory at 8-bit, so it can batch many requests: best for serving a team or an app.

On Windows

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

  • Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open SmolVLM 500M Instruct in LM Studio

  • llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.
  • Ollama Runs the Hugging Face GGUF with ollama run hf.co/…

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 SmolVLM 500M Instruct

Recommended for the NVIDIA H100 NVL: F16. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

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/ggml-org/SmolVLM-500M-Instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/ggml-org/SmolVLM-500M-Instruct-GGUF:F16

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/HuggingFaceTB/SmolVLM-500M-Instruct (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 10Basic quality (D) · 10 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 46/100 (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 H100 NVL: 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.4.5 / 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.1.6 / 15
Match score46.1 / 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 H100 NVL

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 5.8 GB 94.0 GB 15,416 tok/s Runs great 7Basic quality (D) · 7 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 44/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 5.9 GB 94.0 GB 12,135 tok/s Runs great 8Basic quality (D) · 8 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 45/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 5.9 GB 94.0 GB 9,387 tok/s Runs great 9Basic quality (D) · 9 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 45/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 6.0 GB 94.0 GB 7,755 tok/s Runs great 9Basic quality (D) · 9 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 45/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 6.1 GB 94.0 GB 6,513 tok/s Runs great 9Basic quality (D) · 9 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 45/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 6.2 GB 94.0 GB 4,779 tok/s Runs great 10Basic quality (D) · 10 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 46/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
F16 6.7 GB 94.0 GB 2,202 tok/s Runs great 10Basic quality (D) · 10 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 46/100 (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 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

Quick answers

How much memory does SmolVLM 500M Instruct need on the NVIDIA H100 NVL 94GB?

At F16 it needs about 6.7 GB. The NVIDIA H100 NVL 94GB has 94.0 GB usable.

How fast is SmolVLM 500M Instruct on the NVIDIA H100 NVL 94GB?

About 2,202 tok/s at F16, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of SmolVLM 500M Instruct should I use on the NVIDIA H100 NVL 94GB?

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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