Best GPU for Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct
The smallest memory budget in our catalog that runs Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct cleanly at 8,192 tokens is 54 GiB net, with Q4_K_M (43.6 GiB–45.0 GiB total). Cards at that budget: Apple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio). The largest file, BF16, is not comfortable on any device in the catalog.
Which card, by net memory
| Net budget | Devices | Best file that runs | Total at 8,192 | Result | Same file at 32,768 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 GiB | NVIDIA L40S 48GB | Q4_K_M | 43.6 GiB–45.0 GiB | Tight | No |
| 54 GiB | Apple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio) | Q4_K_M | 43.6 GiB–45.0 GiB | Fits | Tight |
| 78 GiB | NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM, NVIDIA H100 80GB SXM | Q6_K | 58.4 GiB–60.0 GiB | Fits | Fits |
| 96 GiB | Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | Q8_0 | 74.8 GiB–76.8 GiB | Fits | Fits |
| 112 GiB | NVIDIA DGX Spark (GB10, 128 GB unified) | Q8_0 | 74.8 GiB–76.8 GiB | Comfortable | Fits |
| 116 GiB | Apple M4 Max 128GB unified (MacBook Pro) | Q8_0 | 74.8 GiB–76.8 GiB | Comfortable | Fits |
Rows start at the first budget where the smallest official file is at least tight and stop at the first where the largest file is comfortable. Devices in one row have the same net budget (capacity minus the catalog's default reserve), so they get the same verdict; choose between them on bandwidth, software support and price, which this page does not rank. llama.cpp, one sequence, fp16 KV cache, typical extras. Unified-memory devices use the reserve in their catalog record. "n/a" in the last column means the model's native window is shorter than 32,768 tokens.
Files this ranking uses
| File | Weights | Source repository |
|---|---|---|
| BF16 | 135.43 GiB (145,412,407,296 bytes) | Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct |
| Q8_0 | 72.21 GiB (77,530,000,800 bytes) | Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-GGUF |
| Q6_K | 55.75 GiB (59,861,035,808 bytes) | Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-GGUF |
| Q5_K_M | 48.13 GiB (51,673,983,488 bytes) | Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-GGUF |
| Q4_K_M | 40.99 GiB (44,010,465,472 bytes) | Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-GGUF |
Byte counts come from the repository file listings recorded on the model page. Memory estimates are formulas, not measurements on these cards. No speed figure is given: none was measured here.
Data sources
- Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct model card
- config.json — revision 495f39366efef23836d0cfae4fbe635880d2be31
- safetensors index — metadata.total_size=145412407296
- Method and reserves — catalog dataset 2026-10-02.1; hardware capacities from vendor spec pages listed on each device page