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Model · Alibaba Qwen

Qwen2.5 14B Instruct: VRAM and hardware requirements

At Q4_K_M with an 8K context, Qwen2.5 14B Instruct needs about 11.2 GB: a GPU with 12 GB or more runs it entirely in VRAM.

  • Parameters14.7B
  • Max context128K
  • LicenseApache-2.0

Specifications

Organization
Alibaba Qwen
Architecture
qwen2
Released
September 2024
Layers
48
Hidden size
5120
Attention heads
40
KV heads
8
Head dimension
128
Vocabulary
152,064
KV cache per 1K tokens (f16)
0.188 GB

Official specData updated 24 days agoSource: Hugging Face config.json + model card

Quantizations and memory

Qwen2.5 14B Instruct: memory by quantization at 8K context
QuantizationFile sizeMemory neededMinimum GPU memoryQuality
BF16Not available~31.2 GB48 GBReference (unquantized)
Q8_014.6 GB~17.7 GB20 GBNear-lossless
Q6_K11.3 GB~14.2 GB16 GBNear-lossless
Q5_K_M9.8 GB~12.7 GB16 GBVery good
Q4_K_MMost used8.4 GB~11.2 GB12 GBGood — the usual choice
IQ4_XS7.6 GB~10.4 GB11 GBGood — the usual choice
Q3_K_M6.8 GB~9.6 GB10 GBNoticeable loss
Q2_K5.4 GB~8.1 GB10 GBSignificant loss

File sizes: not available until imported from the model repository. Memory = weights (estimated from bits per weight) + KV cache + runtime overhead + safety margin. (BF16 ≈ 16 bpw, Q8_0 ≈ 8.5 bpw, Q6_K ≈ 6.57 bpw, Q5_K_M ≈ 5.7 bpw, Q4_K_M ≈ 4.9 bpw, IQ4_XS ≈ 4.46 bpw, Q3_K_M ≈ 4 bpw, Q2_K ≈ 3.17 bpw)

Q4, Q5 or Q8: how to choose a quantization

GPUs that run Qwen2.5 14B Instruct

Qwen2.5 14B Instruct Q4_K_M · 8K context, one GPU
RTX 509032 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 101–154 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 409024 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 65–93 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 309024 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 61–87 tok/s estimateExcellent
RX 7900 XTX24 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.3 GB · 52–79 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB16 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 32–43 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 5070 Ti16 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 59–83 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 508016 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 62–89 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB16 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 21–28 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 4070 Ti SUPER16 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 46–64 tok/s estimateExcellent
RX 9070 XT16 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.3 GB · 38–55 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 3060 12 GB12 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 26–35 tok/s estimateCompatible with limits
RTX 407012 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 36–48 tok/s estimateCompatible with limits
RTX 507012 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 46–64 tok/s estimateCompatible with limits
RTX 40608 GB · 64 GB RAM~11.2 GB · 5–9.5 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload

Macs that run Qwen2.5 14B Instruct

Qwen2.5 14B Instruct Q4_K_M · 8K context
M3 Ultra (80-core GPU) · 512 GBMac Studio~11 GB · 44–77 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 Max (40-core GPU) · 128 GBMacBook Pro 14, MacBook Pro 16~11 GB · 32–51 tok/s estimateExcellent
M3 Max (40-core GPU) · 128 GBMacBook Pro 14, MacBook Pro 16~11 GB · 24–38 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 Pro (20-core GPU) · 64 GBMac mini, MacBook Pro 14~11 GB · 17–26 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 Max (32-core GPU) · 36 GBMacBook Pro 14, MacBook Pro 16~11 GB · 25–39 tok/s estimateExcellent
M5 · 32 GBMacBook Pro 14~11 GB · 10–15 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 · 32 GBMacBook Air, MacBook Pro 14~11 GB · 8–12 tok/s estimateCompatible
M3 · 24 GBMacBook Air, MacBook Pro 14~11 GB · 6.5–9.5 tok/s estimateCompatible

EstimateData updated 24 days agoSource: Run LLM Locally engine

Limits in plain words

The KV cache grows with context: at 32K it adds about 6 GB on top of the weights.

With under 8 GB of VRAM, use a smaller quantization or a smaller model of the same family.

Where to buy

Prices and links follow the market you choose.

GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB

NVIDIA

ExcellentRuns Qwen2.5 14B Instruct Q4_K_M entirely in memory

Price not available

Availability unknown

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Radeon RX 7600 XT

AMD

ExcellentRuns Qwen2.5 14B Instruct Q4_K_M entirely in memory

Price not available

Availability unknown

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MacBook Pro 14 M3 Pro

Apple Silicon

CompatibleRuns Qwen2.5 14B Instruct Q4_K_M entirely in memory

Price not available

Availability unknown

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AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395

Unified memory PC

ExcellentRuns Qwen2.5 14B Instruct Q4_K_M entirely in memory

Price not available

Availability unknown

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No current offer imported for this market: the link opens a marketplace search.

Frequently asked questions

How much VRAM does Qwen2.5 14B Instruct need?
About 11.2 GB at Q4_K_M with an 8K context, including the KV cache and runtime overhead. At Q8_0 it needs about 17.7 GB. A longer context adds more: about 6 GB of KV cache at 32K.
Can Qwen2.5 14B Instruct run on a Mac?
Yes on a Mac whose GPU can use at least 11 GB, e.g. M3 24 GB. macOS lets the GPU use about two thirds to three quarters of unified memory by default.
How fast is Qwen2.5 14B Instruct?
On a RTX 4090, we estimate 65–93 tok/s at Q4_K_M. This is an estimate from memory bandwidth (confidence low) until benchmarks are imported.