Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501 on RTX 3090: Fits (Sep 2026)
Conditional memory judgement for one configuration. Change context, quant, or engine and the conclusion can change. Configuration used on this page: GGUF Q5_K_M (bartowski), 8,192 cached tokens, 1 sequence, engine llama.cpp. Status: Likely fits. Software: Not verified..
Verdict on GeForce RTX 3090 24GB (desktop)
Yes, run Q5_K_M. The calculator puts it at 17.0 GiB–17.8 GiB at 8,192 tokens, inside 22.0 GiB of usable VRAM (after the driver reserve). Q8_0 is the next step up and does not clear the bar (24.7 GiB–25.6 GiB).
With Q5_K_M, the longest context that still counts as a fit is about 20,671 tokens of a 32,768-token native window, one sequence, fp16 KV cache.
| GGUF quant | File weights | KV cache | Estimated total | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 | 23.3 GiB | 1.3 GiB | 24.7 GiB–25.6 GiB | Does not fit |
| Q6_K | 18.0 GiB | 1.3 GiB | 19.4 GiB–20.2 GiB | Tight |
| Q5_K_M (recommended) | 15.6 GiB | 1.3 GiB | 17.0 GiB–17.8 GiB | Fits |
| Q4_K_M | 13.3 GiB | 1.3 GiB | 14.7 GiB–15.5 GiB | Fits |
Engine llama.cpp, one sequence, fp16 KV. File weights are the published GGUF sizes in the catalog. Totals come from the same calculator that powers the tool below; they are estimates, not a measurement of this setup.
Fixed page configuration
GGUF Q5_K_M needs 17.0 GiB-17.8 GiB at 8,192 tokens against 22.00 GiB net on GeForce RTX 3090 24GB (desktop). Q8_0, Q6_K are tight or over budget.
- ModelMistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501
- HardwareGeForce RTX 3090 24GB (desktop)
- QuantizationGGUF Q5_K_M (bartowski)
- Context length (cached tokens)8,192
- Engine
llama.cpp - Concurrent sequences1
- KV cache typefp16
Technical identifiers and share data
- Model
mistral-small-24b-instruct-2501 - Hardware
nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090-24gb-desktop - Quantization
gguf-q5_k_m - Share fragment for this identity
v2.eyJzY2hlbWFWZXJzaW9uIjoyLCJjYWxjdWxhdG9yVmVyc2lvbiI6IjAuMy4wIiwiZGF0YXNldFZlcnNpb24iOiIyMDI2LTEwLTAyLjEiLCJjb25maWciOnsibW9kZWxJZCI6Im1pc3RyYWwtc21hbGwtMjRiLWluc3RydWN0LTI1MDEiLCJoYXJkd2FyZUlkIjoibnZpZGlhLWdlZm9yY2UtcnR4LTMwOTAtMjRnYi1kZXNrdG9wIiwiZGV2aWNlQ291bnQiOjEsInF1YW50aXphdGlvbklkIjoiZ2d1Zi1xNV9rX20iLCJjb250ZXh0VG9rZW5zIjo4MTkyLCJjb25jdXJyZW50U2VxdWVuY2VzIjoxLCJlbmdpbmUiOiJsbGFtYS5jcHAiLCJrdlR5cGUiOiJmcDE2In19
Memory breakdown
- Weight artifact
- 15.61 GiB (16,763,983,552 bytes)
- Raw KV cache
- 1.25 GiB (1,342,177,280 bytes)
- Engine extras / workspace
- 0.13 GiB–0.90 GiB
- Total estimated demand
- 16.99 GiB–17.76 GiB
- Net calculator budget
- 22.00 GiB
- OS / display reserve
- 2.00 GiB
- Remaining vs net budget
- 4.24 GiB–5.01 GiB
17.76 GiB high estimate vs 22.00 GiB net
Enough memory does not mean this engine, quant, and OS will run. Support does not mean it will be fast.
Other published files on this device
Same model, device and context (8,192 tokens, 1 sequence, FP16 KV). Each row is one published weight-file set with its usual engine, sorted by memory.
| Quantization | Engine | Estimated memory | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| BF16 safetensors | vllm | 45.78 GiB–47.69 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q8_0 (Unsloth) | llama.cpp | 24.71 GiB–25.64 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q6_K (Unsloth) | llama.cpp | 19.39 GiB–20.22 GiB | Tight fit |
| GGUF Q5_K_M (bartowski) This page | llama.cpp | 16.99 GiB–17.76 GiB | Fits |
| GGUF Q4_K_M (Unsloth) | llama.cpp | 14.72 GiB–15.45 GiB | Fits |
Assumptions that affect this result
- Requested context is within the recorded native window of 32768 tokens.
- Full-resident weight estimates use total parameters, including inactive MoE experts.
- Weight bytes come from the selected weight files only, not from every file in the repository.
- Download file size is not peak GPU memory. Runtime layout, allocator padding, and KV are extra.
- Counted files: Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501-Q5_K_M.gguf.
- Context budget is the number of cached tokens per sequence (prompt plus reserved generation).
- Concurrent sequences share one model replica; weights are not multiplied by sequence count.
- KV dtype is independent of weight quantization unless you change it.
Related pages
Sources
- Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501 model card
- config.json — revision 9527884be6e5616bdd54de542f9ae13384489724
- safetensors index — metadata.total_size=47144806400
- Artifact repo unsloth/Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501-GGUF
- Artifact repo bartowski/Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501-GGUF
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Family specs — Standard Memory Config 24 GB GDDR6X
Calculator
This combo page keeps the route model and device. Customize to change them on the main calculator; the share then keeps that identity.
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