Llama Guard 3 8B RAM Calculator
Llama Guard 3 is a Llama-3.1-8B pretrained model, fine-tuned for content safety classification. Similar to previous versions, it can be used to classify content in both LLM inputs (prompt classification)...
16GB RAM
Calculated for 4-bit (Q4_K_M) @ 8K Context1. Select Quantization Level
Quantization compresses model weights to reduce RAM usage, with minor impacts on output quality.
2. Set Target Context Length
Longer contexts require more active memory for the Key-Value (KV) cache.
Inference Bandwidth & Speed Matrix
Estimates generation speeds (tokens per second) based on physical memory channel bandwidth constraints.
DDR4 CPU Mode
45 GB/s
10.0 t/s
DDR5 CPU Mode
96 GB/s
21.3 t/s
Mac Unified Memory
300 GB/s
66.7 t/s
GPU VRAM (RTX 4090)
1008 GB/s
224.0 t/s
*Token throughput calculated strictly from weight volume transfers over memory channels. Actual generation speeds can be further throttled by processing threads or VRAM offloading parameters.
16GB System RAM
Stably runs model with Q4/Q8/FP16 quantization & target context windows.
Memory Allocation Sizer
Dynamic Dual-Channel Picks (16GB)
Silicon Power DDR4 16GB 3200MHz (PC4-25600) CL22 SODIMM 260-Pin 1.2V Non-ECC Laptop RAM Notebook Computer Memory SU016GBSFU320F02AB
A-Tech 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2133 MHz SODIMM PC4-17000 (PC4-2133P) CL15 Non-ECC Laptop RAM Memory Modules
A-Tech 16GB DDR4 2133 MHz SODIMM PC4-17000 (PC4-2133P) CL15 2Rx8 Non-ECC Laptop RAM Memory Module
Z1 DDR4 3200MHz (PC4 25600) 16GB (2x8GB) 288-Pin CL16-20-20 Memory Modules, Silver (AX4U320038G16A-DSZ1)
Technical Specifications
GPU & VRAM Sizing Profile
Budget / Entry GPUHardware Profile: Excellent for lightweight dense or edge models. Fits completely inside budget GPU VRAM for maximum processing speeds.
Llama Guard 3 8B Memory FAQs
How much RAM does Llama Guard 3 8B require?
To run Llama Guard 3 8B locally, memory size depends on your selected quantization. At 4-bit compression (Q4_K_M), the weights take up ~4.5GB of RAM. When combined with context cache and OS overhead, a standard **16GB system memory kit** is recommended. Unquantized FP16 execution requires a **32GB memory setup**.
What are the hardware requirements to run Llama Guard 3 8B at FP16 precision?
Running Llama Guard 3 8B at unquantized 16-bit precision requires loading ~16GB of model weights directly into VRAM or system memory. A minimum system memory target of **32GB RAM** is required to run the weights stably and avoid out-of-memory crashes.
Is Llama Guard 3 8B dense or Mixture-of-Experts (MoE)?
Llama Guard 3 8B is built on a **Dense** architecture. It features a dense parameter layout containing 8 Billion parameters. All weights are active and computed on every single pass during token generation.
How does context window size affect RAM usage for Llama Guard 3 8B?
Context size directly scales the size of the Key-Value (KV) cache. At a standard 8,192 token context, the KV cache for Llama Guard 3 8B uses ~0.02GB. If you scale this to 131.072K tokens, the KV cache can scale past hundreds of GBs, requiring multi-GPU or workstation-class RAM configurations.