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Run Qwen2.5 72B on NVIDIA L4

72.7B parameters on a 24 GB card. It won't fit in this card's memory at any usable quantization — here's the math, and what will run it.

verdict · Qwen2.5 72B on NVIDIA L4
Won't fit
even Q3_K_M needs 37.5 GB · only 22.8 GB usable
too big for this card — run it in the cloud
Smallest GPU that fits at Q4_K_M: A100 80GB
Rent A100 80GB by the hour
VRAM needed and fit for Qwen2.5 72B on NVIDIA L4 by quantization.
quantization vram needed fits 24gb? tokens/sec quality
FP16 (full) 174.5 GB ✗ no — Reference quality — no quantization loss.
Q8_0 92.5 GB ✗ no — Near-lossless; rarely worth the extra space over Q6.
Q6_K 71.5 GB ✗ no — Virtually indistinguishable from full precision.
Q5_K_M 60.2 GB ✗ no — Minor loss; an excellent quality-vs-size balance.
Q4_K_M 48.9 GB ✗ no — Small but measurable loss; the popular default.
Q3_K_M 37.5 GB ✗ no — Noticeable degradation; only when you're tight on VRAM.

Weights = params × bytes/weight, +20% for KV cache & runtime; usable VRAM is 95% of nameplate. Tokens/sec is a bandwidth ceiling (300 GB/s) — real throughput is lower with long context. Try other combinations →

Why Qwen2.5 72B won't fit a NVIDIA L4

Qwen2.5 72B has 72.7 billion parameters. Even quantized hard to Q3_K_M, its weights plus KV-cache overhead come to roughly 38 GB, well past the NVIDIA L4's 23 GB of usable VRAM. Spilling the overflow to system RAM (CPU offload) works but can cut throughput tenfold. To run it at the popular Q4_K_M default you'd want a A100 80GB or larger — or rent one by the hour rather than buy.

Quantization is the lever

Each step down in precision shrinks the model: FP16 needs about 174 GB, Q4_K_M about 49 GB — a 72% reduction for a small, usually acceptable quality cost. Q5_K_M and Q6_K are near-lossless if you have the headroom; drop to Q3 only when you're genuinely out of VRAM. The quantization guide covers the tradeoffs in detail.

Frequently asked questions

Can a NVIDIA L4 run Qwen2.5 72B?

Not in VRAM. Even at the smallest practical quantization (Q3_K_M), Qwen2.5 72B needs about 38 GB versus the NVIDIA L4's 23 GB usable. You'd need a larger GPU — a A100 80GB fits it at Q4_K_M, or to rent one by the hour.

How much VRAM does Qwen2.5 72B need?

Qwen2.5 72B is a 72.7B-parameter model. At FP16 that's about 174 GB; at Q4_K_M (the popular default) about 49 GB, including ~20% for the KV cache and runtime. Quantization is the main lever — see the per-quant table above.

Other combinations

Qwen2.5 72B on other GPUs: RTX 3090, RTX 4090, RTX A6000, NVIDIA L40S, A100 40GB, A100 80GB

Other models on the NVIDIA L4: Gemma 2 9B, Phi-3 Medium 14B, Gemma 2 27B, Qwen2.5 32B, Command R 35B, Mixtral 8x7B

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