Google Gemma-3-12B-IT VRAM Requirements & GPU Benchmarks

Google Gemma-3-12B-IT has 12.2B total parameters (12.2B active per token), 48 layers, and 8 KV heads (Dense-GQA). It requires 11.28 GB VRAM in 4-bit (Q4_K_M), 17.01 GB in 8-bit, and 28.79 GB in FP16 at an 8K context window.

CLOUD GPU ALTERNATIVE

Need 11.28 GB+ VRAM to run Google Gemma-3-12B-IT?

Recommended cloud setup for 4-bit: RTX 4090 (24GB) (or 28.79 GB for full FP16). Spin up a pre-configured vLLM / Ollama instance in 60 seconds:

Provider Best For RTX 4090 (24GB) A100 (80GB) H100 (80GB) Bonus / Trial Action
RunPod 1-Click vLLM / Ollama Pods $0.44 / hr $1.39 / hr $2.39 / hr Instant PyTorch / vLLM Pods + Serverless GPU Deploy on RunPod →
Vast.ai Cheapest Spot GPU Market $0.29 / hr $0.95 / hr $1.79 / hr Save 50–70% on RTX 4090 / 5090 / A100 rentals Check Spot GPUs →
Vultr Cloud GPU Enterprise SLA & Bare Metal — $1.79 / hr $2.69 / hr $300 Free Credit for New Users Claim $300 Credit →
DigitalOcean GPU Droplets Managed H100 Droplets — — $2.99 / hr $200 Free Trial (60 Days) Get $200 Free →

GPU Compatibility Matrix for Google Gemma-3-12B-IT

GPU / Hardware VRAM Bandwidth Fits FP16 (28.79GB)? Fits Q4_K_M (11.28GB)? Est. Speed (Q4_K_M) Detailed Report
NVIDIA RTX 5090 32 GB 1792 GB/s Yes Yes (35%) ~150.2 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 5090 Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 4090 24 GB 1008 GB/s No Yes (47%) ~84.5 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 4090 Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 5080 16 GB 960 GB/s No Yes (71%) ~80.5 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 5080 Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super 16 GB 736 GB/s No Yes (71%) ~61.7 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super 16 GB 672 GB/s No Yes (71%) ~56.3 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 3090 24 GB 936 GB/s No Yes (47%) ~78.5 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 3090 Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti 16GB 16 GB 288 GB/s No Yes (71%) ~24.1 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti 16GB Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB 360 GB/s No Yes (94%) ~30.2 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB Setup →
NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48 GB 960 GB/s Yes Yes (24%) ~80.5 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Setup →
NVIDIA RTX A6000 48 GB 768 GB/s Yes Yes (24%) ~64.4 tok/s View NVIDIA RTX A6000 Setup →
NVIDIA L40S 48GB 48 GB 864 GB/s Yes Yes (24%) ~72.4 tok/s View NVIDIA L40S 48GB Setup →
NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM 80 GB 2039 GB/s Yes Yes (14%) ~170.9 tok/s View NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM Setup →
NVIDIA H100 80GB SXM 80 GB 3350 GB/s Yes Yes (14%) ~280 tok/s View NVIDIA H100 80GB SXM Setup →
NVIDIA H200 141GB SXM 141 GB 4800 GB/s Yes Yes (8%) ~280 tok/s View NVIDIA H200 141GB SXM Setup →
NVIDIA Blackwell B200 192GB 192 GB 8000 GB/s Yes Yes (6%) ~280 tok/s View NVIDIA Blackwell B200 192GB Setup →
AMD Instinct MI300X 192GB 192 GB 5300 GB/s Yes Yes (6%) ~280 tok/s View AMD Instinct MI300X 192GB Setup →
2x NVIDIA RTX 3090 (48GB) 48 GB 936 GB/s Yes Yes (24%) ~78.5 tok/s View 2x NVIDIA RTX 3090 (48GB) Setup →
2x NVIDIA RTX 4090 (48GB) 48 GB 1008 GB/s Yes Yes (24%) ~84.5 tok/s View 2x NVIDIA RTX 4090 (48GB) Setup →
4x NVIDIA A100 80GB (320GB) 320 GB 2039 GB/s Yes Yes (4%) ~170.9 tok/s View 4x NVIDIA A100 80GB (320GB) Setup →
8x NVIDIA H100 80GB (640GB) 640 GB 3350 GB/s Yes Yes (2%) ~280 tok/s View 8x NVIDIA H100 80GB (640GB) Setup →
Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) 128 GB 546 GB/s Yes Yes (9%) ~50.2 tok/s View Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) Setup →
Apple M3 Ultra Mac Studio (512GB) 512 GB 819 GB/s Yes Yes (2%) ~75.3 tok/s View Apple M3 Ultra Mac Studio (512GB) Setup →
Apple M4 Pro Mac Mini (64GB) 64 GB 273 GB/s Yes Yes (18%) ~25.1 tok/s View Apple M4 Pro Mac Mini (64GB) Setup →