Qwen 2.5 14B VRAM Requirements

Qwen 2.5 14B needs about 10.7 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M with an 8K context: 8.3 GB for weights, 1.5 GB for the KV cache and 0.9 GB of runtime overhead. At Q8_0 it needs 16.9 GB and at full FP16 precision 29.7 GB. The smallest GPU that runs it fully is the Apple M4 16GB.

By Alibaba · Updated October 14, 2026 · Values from config.json on Hugging Face

10.7 GB VRAM

Qwen 2.5 14B at Q4_K_M with 8K context and the KV cache in FP16.

  • Weights 8.3 GB
  • KV cache 1.5 GB
  • Runtime overhead 0.9 GB

Which GPUs can run it

Qwen 2.5 14B VRAM by quantization

Total memory with an FP16 KV cache. "Smallest tier" is the smallest standard VRAM size with a 6% safety margin at 8K.

QuantizationBits/weightWeightsTotal at 8KTotal at 32KSmallest tier
Q4_K_M4.858.3 GB10.7 GB15.2 GB12 GB
Q5_K_M5.699.7 GB12.1 GB16.6 GB16 GB
Q6_K6.5911.3 GB13.6 GB18.1 GB16 GB
Q8_08.5014.5 GB16.9 GB21.4 GB20 GB
FP16 / BF1616.0027.4 GB29.7 GB34.2 GB32 GB
Q3_K_M3.916.7 GB9.1 GB13.6 GB10 GB
Q2_K3.005.1 GB7.5 GB12.0 GB8 GB

VRAM by context length

At Q4_K_M. The KV cache grows linearly with context: 0.19 GB per 1,000 tokens in FP16.

ContextKV cache (FP16)KV cache (Q8_0)Total, FP16 cacheTotal, Q8_0 cache
4K tokens0.8 GB0.4 GB9.9 GB9.6 GB
8K tokens1.5 GB0.8 GB10.7 GB10.0 GB
32K tokens6.0 GB3.2 GB15.2 GB12.4 GB

GPUs that can run Qwen 2.5 14B

At Q4_K_M with 8K context. "Best quant" is the highest-quality format that fits fully; "max context" is at Q4_K_M.

GPUUsable memoryStatusBest quantMax contextSpeed
Apple M4 16GB10.7 GBTight fitIQ4_XS4K~8.0 tok/s
RTX 2080 Ti 11GB11.0 GBTight fitIQ4_XS6K~40 tok/s
RTX 2060 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~22 tok/s
RTX 3060 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~24 tok/s
Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~22 tok/s
Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~24 tok/s
Intel Arc B580 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~23 tok/s
RTX 4070 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~33 tok/s
RTX 4070 Super 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~33 tok/s
RTX 4070 Ti 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~33 tok/s
RTX 5070 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~44 tok/s
RTX 3080 12GB12.0 GBFitsQ4_K_M11K~59 tok/s
Apple M4 Pro 24GB16.0 GBFitsQ6_K31K~18 tok/s
RTX 4060 Ti 16GB16.0 GBFitsQ6_K31K~19 tok/s
RTX 3080 10GB10.0 GB88% on GPUQ3_K_M1K~22 tok/s
Intel Arc B570 10GB10.0 GB88% on GPUQ3_K_M1K~14 tok/s
RTX 3050 8GB8.0 GB70% on GPUQ2_K–~8.6 tok/s
RTX 3060 Ti 8GB8.0 GB70% on GPUQ2_K–~11 tok/s
RTX 3070 8GB8.0 GB70% on GPUQ2_K–~11 tok/s
RTX 3070 Ti 8GB8.0 GB70% on GPUQ2_K–~12 tok/s

About Qwen 2.5 14B

A sweet spot for 12 GB and 16 GB cards. At Q4_K_M the weights are about 8.3 GB, leaving room for context on a 12 GB GPU. Its 48 layers give a KV cache of 192 KB per token in FP16.

SpecValue
Parameters14.7B
Layers48
Hidden size5120
Attention heads / KV heads40 / 8
Head dimension128
Vocabulary152,064
Max context (used here)32K tokens
KV cache per token (FP16)192 KB
Released2024-09
LicenseApache 2.0

Qwen 2.5 14B VRAM: common questions

Does Qwen 2.5 14B fit on an RTX 3060 12GB?

Yes at Q4_K_M with an 8K context (about 10.7 GB). For 32K context, quantize the KV cache to Q8_0 or use a 16 GB card.

How much VRAM does Qwen 2.5 14B need?

About 10.7 GB at Q4_K_M with an 8K context, 16.9 GB at Q8_0 and 29.7 GB at FP16. Longer contexts add 0.19 GB per 1,000 tokens with an FP16 cache.

What is the cheapest GPU that can run Qwen 2.5 14B?

The smallest listed device that fits it fully at Q4_K_M with 8K context is the Apple M4 16GB (10.7 GB usable).

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