What LLMs can two RTX 3090 GPUs run?
Two RTX 3090 GPUs (48 GB in all) run 40 of the 69 open models tracked here at Q4_K_M with 8K context; the largest is Llama 3.1 70B (70.6B parameters, 47.5 GB). They read memory at 1,872 GB/s in total. 3 more fit at a lower precision. Each fit leaves at least 0.5 GB free on 2× RTX 3090 (why a card does not give a model all its memory). The speeds assume tensor parallelism, as in vLLM or SGLang; llama.cpp splits layers across cards by default and then writes at about the speed of one card. How the model is divided between the cards, and what each one holds.
Models that fit on 2× RTX 3090
The most precise weights that still fit with 8K tokens of context and one request, the memory that takes, the longest context at that precision and the writing speed. Bigger models come first. Memory is for the whole group: weights, cache and 10% split across the 2 cards, plus 0.5 GB of runtime on each card (1 GB in all). gpt-oss-20b (15.3 GB, 123–246 tokens/s on 2× RTX 3090) is listed at MXFP4 only, as published.
| Model | Best precision | Memory | Longest context | Tokens/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AliceAI Foundation 80B-A3B 81.3B, 3B active | GGUF Q3_K_M | 41.9 GB | 224K | 155–325 |
| Qwen3-Coder-Next 79.7B, 3B active | GGUF Q3_K_M | 41.1 GB | 256K (full) | 155–325 |
| Kolibri-1 78.1B, 3.5B active | GGUF Q3_K_M | 40.4 GB | 256K (full) | 143–294 |
| Llama 3.1 70B 70.6B | GGUF Q4_K_M | 47.5 GB | 7K | 21–30 |
| K2-Horizon MoVA 36B-A4B 37.4B, 4B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 43.4 GB | 27K | 72–132 |
| Ornith 1.5 35B-A3B 36.0B, 3B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 40.3 GB | 256K (full) | 106–205 |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 36.0B, 3B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 40.3 GB | 256K (full) | 106–205 |
| Ornith 1.0 35B 35.1B, 3B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 39.4 GB | 256K (full) | 106–205 |
| LLM-jp-4.1 32B-A3B Thinking 32.1B, 3.8B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 36.5 GB | 64K (full) | 85–161 |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B 31.6B, 3.5B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 35.4 GB | 256K (full) | 98–188 |
| Gemma 4 31B 31.3B | GGUF Q8_0 | 37.0 GB | 129K | 27–38 |
| GLM-4.7 Flash 31.2B, 3B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 35.4 GB | 198K (full) | 100–193 |
| Xing 4.0 29B-A4B 31.2B, 4B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 35.4 GB | 256K (full) | 85–160 |
| Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B 30.5B, 3.3B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 35.1 GB | 128K | 89–169 |
| Qwen3 30B-A3B 30.5B, 3.3B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 35.1 GB | 40K (full) | 89–169 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B 29.8B | GGUF Q8_0 | 33.6 GB | 128K (full) | 29–42 |
| Granite 4.2 30B 29.3B | GGUF Q8_0 | 35.1 GB | 53K | 28–40 |
| ThinkingCap Qwen3.8 27B 27.8B | GGUF Q8_0 | 31.8 GB | 236K | 31–44 |
| Qwen3.6 27B 27.8B | GGUF Q8_0 | 31.8 GB | 236K | 31–44 |
| Qwen3.8 27B 27.8B | GGUF Q8_0 | 31.8 GB | 236K | 31–44 |
| Hemmingway-1 27B 27.3B | GGUF Q8_0 | 31.3 GB | 243K | 31–45 |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B 25.8B, 4B active | GGUF Q8_0 | 29.6 GB | 256K (full) | 84–157 |
| gpt-oss-20b 20.9B, 3.6B active | As published (MXFP4) | 15.3 GB | 128K (full) | 123–246 |
| Gemma 4 12B 12.0B | FP16 / BF16 | 26.2 GB | 256K (full) | 37–53 |
| ZDTaichu 5.0 9B 9.8B | FP16 / BF16 | 21.3 GB | 128K (full) | 44–65 |
| Ornith 1.5 9B 9.7B | FP16 / BF16 | 21.1 GB | 256K (full) | 44–66 |
| Qwen3.5 9B 9.7B | FP16 / BF16 | 21.1 GB | 256K (full) | 44–66 |
| LensVLM 9B 9.4B | FP16 / BF16 | 20.6 GB | 256K (full) | 45–67 |
| Ornith 1.0 9B 9.4B | FP16 / BF16 | 20.6 GB | 256K (full) | 45–67 |
| MiMo V2.6 Distill Qwen 9B 9.4B | FP16 / BF16 | 20.6 GB | 256K (full) | 45–67 |
| Bespoke Nimble 9B 9.0B | FP16 / BF16 | 19.6 GB | 8K (full) | 47–70 |
| Granite 4.2 8B 8.8B | FP16 / BF16 | 20.4 GB | 128K (full) | 46–68 |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B 8.5B, 1.5B active | FP16 / BF16 | 18.5 GB | 128,000 (full) | 111–217 |
| Qwen3 8B 8.2B | FP16 / BF16 | 19.0 GB | 40K (full) | 49–72 |
| Llama 3.1 8B 8.0B | FP16 / BF16 | 18.6 GB | 128K (full) | 50–74 |
| Gemma 4 E4B 8.0B | FP16 / BF16 | 17.6 GB | 128K (full) | 52–78 |
| Ling 3.0 Tiny 7.9B-A1.3B 7.9B, 1.3B active | FP16 / BF16 | 17.2 GB | 128K (full) | 121–242 |
| LightOnOCR-3 4B 4.5B | FP16 / BF16 | 10.6 GB | 256K (full) | 80–126 |
| Spark-X2.5 4B 4.1B | FP16 / BF16 | 9.85 GB | 981K | 84–134 |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 4B 4.0B | FP16 / BF16 | 9.28 GB | 256K (full) | 88–142 |
| Granite 4.2 3B 3.7B | FP16 / BF16 | 9.19 GB | 128K (full) | 89–143 |
| MiniCPM5 2B 2.5B | FP16 / BF16 | 6.52 GB | 128K (full) | 115–195 |
| Limite 1B Violetto 1.0B | FP16 / BF16 | 3.29 GB | 128K (full) | 176–346 |
Too big for 2× RTX 3090 at 8K context
How many RTX 3090 cards these need at Q4_K_M (gpt-oss-120b at MXFP4) with 8K context and 0.5 GB to spare, in one tensor-parallel group; some need more than 8.
- gpt-oss-120b: 4 cards
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B: 4 cards
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B-A12B: 4 cards
- Qwen3.5 122B-A10B: 4 cards
- Mistral Medium 3.5 128B: 4 cards
- Qwen3.8 Flash Next: 8 cards
- Step 3.7 Flash 196B-A11B: 8 cards
- MiniMax M2.7: 8 cards
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: 8 cards
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731: more than 8 cards
- MiMo V2.6 Flash: more than 8 cards
- IQuest-Q1 320B-A15B: more than 8 cards
- GLM-5.3 Flash: more than 8 cards
- MiniMax M3: more than 8 cards
- Ling 3.1 Flash 560B-A25B: more than 8 cards
- DeepSeek V3 / R1: more than 8 cards
- DeepSeek V3.2: more than 8 cards
- GLM-5.3: more than 8 cards
- GLM-5.2: more than 8 cards
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: more than 8 cards
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: more than 8 cards
- Hy4 Preview 770B-A49B: more than 8 cards
- MiMo V2.6 Pro: more than 8 cards
- DeepSeek V4 Pro: more than 8 cards
- Qwen3.8 2.4T-A95B: more than 8 cards
- Kimi K3: more than 8 cards
Best models for 2× RTX 3090 with room for long context
The biggest models that still fit at Q4_K_M with 32,768 tokens of context (or their whole window, if shorter), the memory left over, the longest context the group takes at that precision and the writing speed with that context in the cache, from 1,872 GB/s of bandwidth. Memory is for the whole group: weights, cache and 10% split across the 2 cards, plus 0.5 GB of runtime on each card (1 GB in all). Memory and left over add up to the group's 48 GB.
| Model | Context | Memory | Left over | Longest context | Tokens/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K2-Horizon MoVA 36B-A4B 37.4B | 32K | 30.8 GB | 17.2 GB | 112K | 52–93 |
| Ornith 1.5 35B-A3B 36.0B | 32K | 24.0 GB | 24.0 GB | 256K (full) | 126–253 |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 36.0B | 32K | 24.0 GB | 24.0 GB | 256K (full) | 126–253 |
| Ornith 1.0 35B 35.1B | 32K | 23.4 GB | 24.6 GB | 256K (full) | 126–253 |
| LLM-jp-4.1 32B-A3B Thinking 32.1B | 32K | 23.1 GB | 24.9 GB | 64K (full) | 87–165 |
llama-server commands for 2× RTX 3090
GGUF repos checked 2026-09-29; -c is the longest context with 0.5 GB free on 2× RTX 3090. No -ngl: llama.cpp’s -fit, on by default since b7440, places the layers.
K2-Horizon MoVA 36B-A4B, Q4_K_M with 112K tokens: 21–36 tokens/s on 2× RTX 3090
llama-server -hf IFM/K2-Horizon-MoVA-36B-A4B-GGUF:Q4_K_M -c 114688K2-Horizon-MoVA-36B-A4B-Q4_K_M.gguf, 22.4 GB: 47.3 GB used and 709 MB free of 2× RTX 3090's 48 GB, 21–36 tokens/s once the 112K cache is full.
Ornith 1.5 35B-A3B, Q4_K_M with 256K tokens: 61–111 tokens/s on 2× RTX 3090
llama-server -hf bartowski/Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B-GGUF:Q4_K_M -c 262144Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B-Q4_K_M.gguf, 21.9 GB: 28.9 GB used and 19.1 GB free of 2× RTX 3090's 48 GB, 61–111 tokens/s once the 256K cache is full.
How fast 2× RTX 3090 writes as the context fills
Tokens per second at Q4_K_M for the biggest models that fit with 32K tokens, with 8K and 32K tokens in the cache and at the longest context the group holds, and at Q8_0 with 8K where that fits. Each token reads the active weights and the whole cache once, so the speed follows the 1,872 GB/s of bandwidth and falls as the cache grows. The ceiling is that bandwidth divided by the bytes read per token, which no runtime reaches; the reply time is for 1,000 new tokens with 32K (or the longest context) in the cache, prompt processing aside. With the same memory, M4 Pro Mac (64 GB), 273 GB/s, writes 85% slower by bandwidth; L40S, 864 GB/s, writes 54% slower by bandwidth; 2× RTX 4090, 2,016 GB/s, writes 8% faster by bandwidth.
| Model | 8K | 32K | Longest | At the longest | Q8_0 at 8K | Bandwidth ceiling at 8K | 1,000-token reply at 32K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K2-Horizon MoVA 36B-A4B | 94–178 | 52–93 | 112K | 21–36 | 72–132 | 464 | 11–19 s |
| Ornith 1.5 35B-A3B | 142–293 | 126–253 | 256K | 61–111 | 106–205 | 944 | 4–8 s |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | 142–293 | 126–253 | 256K | 61–111 | 106–205 | 944 | 4–8 s |
| Ornith 1.0 35B | 142–293 | 126–253 | 256K | 61–111 | 106–205 | 944 | 4–8 s |
| LLM-jp-4.1 32B-A3B Thinking | 117–230 | 87–165 | 64K | 65–120 | 85–161 | 656 | 6–11 s |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B | 136–277 | 131–265 | 256K | 99–189 | 98–188 | 864 | 4–8 s |
| Gemma 4 31B | 42–62 | 39–57 | 256K | 23–32 | 27–38 | 90 | 18–26 s |
| GLM-4.7 Flash | 133–269 | 101–195 | 198K | 38–67 | 100–193 | 829 | 5–10 s |
| Xing 4.0 29B-A4B | 118–233 | 95–182 | 256K | 34–60 | 85–160 | 669 | 5–10 s |
| Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B | 118–233 | 78–145 | 256K | 19–32 | 89–169 | 668 | 7–13 s |
Near misses on 2× RTX 3090
Models that miss at Q4_K_M with 32,768 tokens of context (or their whole window), or leave under 0.5 GB free there, but fit with a shorter context or 3-bit weights, or are short by at most a quarter of the memory and fit with MoE offload. Smallest shortfall first.
| Model | Short by at Q4_K_M | Fits instead |
|---|---|---|
| Kolibri-1 78.1B | 2.20 GB | GGUF Q3_K_M with 32K, 40.9 GB |
| Qwen3-Coder-Next 79.7B | 3.21 GB | GGUF Q3_K_M with 32K, 41.7 GB |
| AliceAI Foundation 80B-A3B 81.3B | 4.21 GB | GGUF Q3_K_M with 32K, 42.5 GB |
| Llama 3.1 70B 70.6B | 7.73 GB | GGUF Q3_K_M with 32K, 47.3 GB |
What more cards or MoE offload unlock
4× RTX 3090 (96 GB) would add 8 models at Q4_K_M with 8K context: Kolibri-1, Qwen3-Coder-Next, AliceAI Foundation 80B-A3B, gpt-oss-120b, Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B, Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B-A12B, Qwen3.5 122B-A10B, Mistral Medium 3.5 128B.
Run locally or rent two RTX 3090 GPUs?
Renting two RTX 3090 GPUs costs a median of $0.54 an hour on demand ($0.27 per card), across the providers getdeploying.com tracks (checked ), so every $1,000 of purchase price equals about 1,852 hours of rent, 77 days around the clock. At that rate K2-Horizon MoVA 36B-A4B at Q4_K_M with 32K tokens, the biggest model here that fits with a long context, writes 52–93 tokens/s for one request: about $1.6–2.9 per million generated tokens. Electricity and resale value are left out, and no card prices are listed because 2026 street prices vary widely between sellers; compare current ones before you decide.
Serving with vLLM on 2× RTX 3090
The KV cache pool vLLM builds with --tensor-parallel-size 2 at its default --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92 and --max-model-len 32768, weights as published, from the vLLM KV cache calculator. The pool is shared by every request; the last column assumes 4,096 tokens each.
| Model | KV cache per GPU | Pool (tokens) | At 32K | Requests at 4K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gpt-oss-20b | 13.4 GB | 1,035,400 | 31.60x | 142 |
| Qwen3 8B | 12.5 GB | 182,720 | 5.58x | 44 |
How these numbers are worked out
Memory is the weights at each precision plus the KV cache for 8,192 tokens in FP16 and runtime overhead (0.5 GB on each card plus 10%), computed from each model's files on Hugging Face with the LLM VRAM Calculator. Speed is estimated from memory bandwidth and the parameters read per token with the LLM Speed Calculator. Both tools take any other model from Hugging Face.
Nearby GPUs and setups
How many of the tracked models each one holds at Q4_K_M with 8K context, against 40 here.
| Setup | How it relates | Memory | Bandwidth | Models at Q4_K_M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M4 Pro Mac (64 GB) | Same memory | 48 GB usable | 273 GB/s | 40 (same) |
| L40S | Same memory | 48 GB | 864 GB/s | 40 (same) |
| 2× RTX 4090 | Same memory | 48 GB | 2,016 GB/s | 40 (same) |
| RTX 5090 | Next size down | 32 GB | 1,792 GB/s | 39 (−1) |
| 2× RTX 5090 | Next size up | 64 GB | 3,584 GB/s | 43 (+3) |
| RTX 3090 | Fewer of this card | 24 GB | 936 GB/s | 38 (−2) |
| 4× RTX 3090 | More of this card | 96 GB | 3,744 GB/s | 48 (+8) |
Model numbers read from Hugging Face on .