How much VRAM does Granite 3.1 8B need?

Granite 3.1 8B requires approximately 0.0 GB VRAM at Q4_K_M quantization with 1K context and 10% overhead. At Q8_0 it needs ~0.0 GB, and at FP16 ~0.0 GB. Use the PCPARTGUIDE VRAM Calculator for exact requirements at any context length and overhead setting.

Can I run Granite 3.1 8B on a consumer GPU?

Yes, Granite 3.1 8B can run on consumer GPUs. At Q4_K_M quantization with moderate context length, it fits on a 12 GB GPU. For best performance, use a 12 GB or larger GPU with at least 8 GB VRAM for reasonable context lengths.

What is Granite 3.1 8B's context window?

Granite 3.1 8B supports a maximum context window of 131,072 tokens. The default context is 4,096 tokens. Larger contexts require proportionally more VRAM for the KV cache — use the VRAM Calculator to estimate exact requirements at your target context length.

What quantization level should I use for Granite 3.1 8B?

For Granite 3.1 8B, Q4_K_M is the recommended quantization — it provides an excellent quality-to-VRAM ratio at ~0.0 GB. Q8_0 offers slightly better quality at ~2× the VRAM. Q4_K_M is the sweet spot for most users.

How does Granite 3.1 8B compare to similar models?

Granite 3.1 8B is a 8.0B Dense model from the IBM Granite family. Browse other IBM Granite models on the PCPARTGUIDE directory for comparable alternatives with different parameter counts and VRAM requirements. Use the Model Transparency scores to assess documentation quality and reproducibility.

IBM GraniteDenseApache 2.0

Granite 3.1 8B

Granite 3.1 8B is a dense transformer language model from the IBM Granite family, containing 8B parameters across 40 layers. It supports up to 131K tokens of context with a hidden dimension of 4096 and 8 KV heads for efficient grouped-query…

8.0B

Parameters

128K

Max Context

Dense

Architecture

—

Released

Text

Modality

About Granite 3.1 8B

CodeEnterprise

Technical Specifications

Total Parameters8.0B

ArchitectureDense

Attention TypeGQA (Grouped Query Attention)

Hidden Dimensiond = 4,096

Transformer Layers40

Attention Heads32

KV Headsn_kv = 8

Head Dimensiond_head = 128

Activation FunctionSwiGLU

NormalizationRMSNorm

Position EmbeddingRoPE

System Requirements

Estimated VRAM at 10% overhead for different quantization methods and context sizes.

Quantization	1K ctx	128K ctx
Q4_K_M0.50 B/W ~97% of FP16	4.29Consumer GPU	24.14Datacenter GPU
Q8_01.00 B/W ~100% of FP16	8.43Consumer GPU	28.27Datacenter GPU
F162.00 B/W Reference	16.70Consumer GPU	36.54Datacenter GPU

Fits 24 GB consumer GPU

Fits 80 GB datacenter GPU

Requires cluster / multi-GPU

Other IBM Granite Models

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Granite 3.1 2B

Params

2.0B

Layers

Context

128K

Granite 3.1 20B

Params

20.0B

Layers

Context

128K

Find the right GPU for Granite 3.1 8B

Use the interactive VRAM Calculator to see exactly how much memory you need at any quantization level, context length, and overhead setting.

Open VRAM Calculator Best GPU Guide VRAM Guide