ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) on RTX A6000 (48GB) — VRAM, KV Cache & Throughput

ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) (21B total, 3B active, Sparse MoE + GQA) uses 11.96 GiB of 4-bit weights (Q4_K_M), requiring 12.96 GiB total at 8K context and 14.27 GiB at 32K on RTX A6000 (~140.9 tok/s decode).

Interactive Sizing Workbench

Full Compatibility Report →

Open-Weight Model21B / 3B

Weights & QuantizationQ4_K_M · 11.96 GiB

Context Window8,192 (8K)

Target Hardware

48 GB · 768 GB/s

GPU Count (Tensor Parallel)

Concurrent Batch Size

KV Cache Precision

Inference Engine

System RAM Offload (CPU)0%

Fits with Safe Headroom

Config-derived formula HF config.json ↗

Memory Allocation Breakdown (GiB) 12.96 GiB (13.92 GB) / 48 GiB (27%)

Model Weights: 11.96 GiB KV Cache & State: 0.44 GiB Runtime & Activation Buffers: 0.56 GiB System RAM Offload: 0 GiB

Required GPU Memory

12.96 GiB

13.92 GB (decimal)

Usable Hardware Memory

45.6 GiB

48 GB (physical)

Safe Headroom

+32.64 GiB

27% utilization

Est. Decode Throughput

~140.9 tok/s

3B active params

Est. Prefill Throughput

~6673 tok/s

4K Prompt TTFT: ~614 ms

Est. Cost / 1M Tokens

$0.24

Sparse MoE + GQA · Apache-2.0

Recommended Hardware for Current Configuration

Best Single GPU

RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)

~$430

Best Value / Used GPU

RTX 3090 (24GB)

~$750

Apple Unified Memory

Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB

~$1,999

Cloud From

Vast.ai · $0.12 / hr

1x RTX 4060 Ti 16GB

Production Launch Commands

llama.cpp (GGUF)

llama-server -hf unsloth/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT-GGUF:Q4_K_M \
  --ctx-size 8192 -ngl 999 --flash-attn

vLLM

vllm serve baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT \
  --max-model-len 8192 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92

Live Token Speed Simulator (TTFT ~614ms · ~140.9 tok/s)

[ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) · 12.96 GiB] allocated on target GPU. Prefill completed in TTFT window; streaming autoregressive tokens at memory-bandwidth-bound rate...

Cloud GPU Comparison & Rent-vs-Buy TCO

Verified public rates across RunPod, Vast.ai, Vultr, and DigitalOcean.

Verified: 2026-11-04

Active usage (hours / day)4 h / day

Local hardware budget ($)

Electricity rate ($/kWh)

Purchase break-even

~18.5 months

Est. local power: $3.51 / mo

Provider	Recommended Instance	Total VRAM	Hourly Rate	Monthly at Selected Hours	Billing Mode	Deploy
RunPod	1x RTX 3090 (Community Cloud)	24 GB	$0.22 / hr	$26.75 / mo	Per-second	Deploy GPU ↗
Vast.ai	1x RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (Verified Host)	16 GB	$0.12 / hr	$14.84 / mo	Spot / On-demand	Deploy GPU ↗
*Vultr ($300 Free Credit)**	1x L40S 48GB (Dedicated Instance · $300 Credit*)	48 GB	$1.67 / hr	$203.19 / mo	Hourly	Deploy GPU ↗
Vultr Cloud GPU	1x L40S 48GB (Dedicated Instance)	48 GB	$1.67 / hr	$203.19 / mo	Hourly	Deploy GPU ↗
DigitalOcean	1x RTX 6000 Ada (Dedicated Instance)	48 GB	$1.57 / hr	$190.91 / mo	Per-second	Deploy GPU ↗

Rates reflect public listings on the verification date and fluctuate with regional inventory.

Fine-Tuning VRAM Requirements (QLoRA / LoRA / Full) — ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心)

QLoRA (4b) Fits with Safe Headroom

14.19 GiB

Model Weights: 11.96 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 1.2 GiB · Act: 1.03 GiB

Recommended GPU: RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)

LoRA (16b) Fits with Safe Headroom

42.28 GiB

Model Weights: 39.12 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 1.8 GiB · Act: 1.36 GiB

Recommended GPU: A40 48GB (48GB)

Full BF16 Exceeds Available GPU Memory

162.79 GiB

Model Weights: 39.12 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 121.27 GiB · Act: 2.4 GiB

Recommended GPU: Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)

Engineering Sizing Notes & Optimization Playbook

Quick Hardware Verdict

RTX A6000 (48GB physical, 45.6 GiB usable) runs 4-bit (Q4_K_M) ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) at 8K context using 12.96 GiB with 32.64 GiB of safe headroom (~140.9 tok/s single-stream decode).

KV Cache & Runtime Tuning

ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) uses Sparse MoE + GQA (21B total, 3B active per token). Moving from 8K to 32K context expands FP16 KV cache from 0.44 GiB to 1.75 GiB; enabling 8-bit KV cache (llama.cpp -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 or vLLM --kv-cache-dtype fp8) saves 0.87 GiB at 32K (reducing total VRAM to 13.4 GiB).

VRAM Scaling Across Context Windows (4K to 128K, 4-bit Weights)

Model weights remain constant while attention KV cache grows with context length and batch size.

Quantization Precision & Memory Matrix — ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) @ 8K

Quantization Format	Weights (GiB)	KV Cache	Total VRAM (GiB)	Decode Speed	Compatibility (RTX A6000)	Recommended GPU	Data Source
Native Weights (BF16 / FP8 / MXFP4 — Lossless) (BF16)	39.12 GiB	0.44 GiB	40.12 GiB (43.08 GB)	~57 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	A40 48GB (48GB)	Official checkpoint size
FP8 / GGUF Q8_0 (8-bit — Near-Lossless) (Q8_0)	20.78 GiB	0.44 GiB	21.78 GiB (23.39 GB)	~95.3 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB)	Config-derived formula
GGUF Q6_K (6-bit — High Precision) (Q6_K)	16.04 GiB	0.44 GiB	17.04 GiB (18.3 GB)	~115.4 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB)	Config-derived formula
GGUF Q5_K_M (5-bit — Balanced) (Q5_K_M)	13.96 GiB	0.44 GiB	14.96 GiB (16.06 GB)	~127.1 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB)	Config-derived formula
Q4_K_M / UD-Q4_K_XL / AWQ (4-bit — Recommended) (Q4_K_M)	11.96 GiB	0.44 GiB	12.96 GiB (13.92 GB)	~140.9 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)	Config-derived formula
GGUF IQ4_XS (4.25-bit — Compact) (IQ4_XS)	10.47 GiB	0.44 GiB	11.47 GiB (12.32 GB)	~153.3 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)	Config-derived formula
GGUF Q3_K_M (3-bit — Low VRAM) (Q3_K_M)	9.63 GiB	0.44 GiB	10.63 GiB (11.41 GB)	~161.3 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)	Config-derived formula
GGUF UD-Q2_K_XL (2-bit — Extreme MoE) (UD-Q2_K_XL)	6.83 GiB	0.44 GiB	7.83 GiB (8.41 GB)	~195.2 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)	Config-derived formula

Technical Specifications & FAQ

Does ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) fit on RTX A6000 (48GB)?

In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) requires 12.96 GiB total GPU memory (11.96 GiB weights + 0.44 GiB KV cache + 0.56 GiB runtime buffers) against 45.6 GiB usable on RTX A6000, delivering ~140.9 tok/s decode.

How much VRAM does ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) need at 32K context?

At 32,768 context tokens, ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B (文心) (Sparse MoE + GQA) allocates 1.75 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 14.27 GiB (15.32 GB decimal).

Evaluate This Model on Other GPUs

RTX 3060 12GB (12GB)RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)RTX 4070 Ti Super (16GB)RTX 4080 Super (16GB)RTX 5070 12GB (12GB)RTX 5070 Ti (16GB)RTX 5080 (16GB)RTX 3090 (24GB)RTX 4090 (24GB)RTX 4090 D (24GB)RTX 5090 (32GB)RTX 5090 D (32GB)RTX 6000 Ada (48GB)RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB)DGX Spark (GB10 128GB) (128GB)L4 24GB (24GB)A40 48GB (48GB)L20 48GB (48GB)L40S 48GB (48GB)A800 80GB SXM (80GB)A100 80GB SXM (80GB)H800 80GB SXM (80GB)H100 80GB SXM (80GB)H20 96GB HBM3 (96GB)H20 141GB HBM3e (141GB)H200 141GB SXM (141GB)B200 180GB (180GB)B300 288GB Blackwell Ultra (288GB)Ascend 910B 64GB (昇腾) (64GB)Ascend 910C 128GB (昇腾) (128GB)Atlas 300I Duo 96GB (310P) (96GB)MLU590 80GB (寒武纪思元) (80GB)DCU K100-AI 64GB (海光深算) (64GB)MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云) (64GB)Kunlunxin P800 64GB (昆仑芯) (64GB)MTT S4000 48GB (摩尔线程) (48GB)Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB (24GB)Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB (32GB)Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB (128GB)Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)Instinct MI325X 256GB (256GB)Instinct MI355X 288GB (288GB)Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB)Gaudi 3 128GB HBM2e (128GB)Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB (64GB)MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB (128GB)Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB (256GB)Mac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB (512GB)

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