GLM-4 32B-0414 on RTX 5090 D (32GB) — VRAM, KV Cache & Throughput

GLM-4 32B-0414 (32B total, 32B active, Dense GQA) uses 18.44 GiB of 4-bit weights (Q4_K_M), requiring 20.92 GiB total at 8K context and 26.64 GiB at 32K on RTX 5090 D (~56.1 tok/s decode).

Interactive Sizing Workbench

Full Compatibility Report →
32 GB · 1792 GB/s
Fits with Safe Headroom
Config-derived formula HF config.json ↗
Memory Allocation Breakdown (GiB) 20.92 GiB (22.46 GB) / 32 GiB (65%)
Model Weights: 18.44 GiB KV Cache & State: 1.91 GiB Runtime & Activation Buffers: 0.57 GiB System RAM Offload: 0 GiB
Required GPU Memory
20.92 GiB
22.46 GB (decimal)
Usable Hardware Memory
30.4 GiB
32 GB (physical)
Safe Headroom
+9.48 GiB
65% utilization
Est. Decode Throughput
~56.1 tok/s
32B active params
Est. Prefill Throughput
~1503 tok/s
4K Prompt TTFT: ~2725 ms
Est. Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.94
Dense GQA · MIT

Recommended Hardware for Current Configuration

Best Single GPU
Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB)
~$599
Best Value / Used GPU
RTX 3090 (24GB)
~$750
Apple Unified Memory
Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB
~$1,999
Cloud From
Vast.ai · $0.19 / hr
1x RTX 3090

Production Launch Commands

llama.cpp (GGUF)
llama-server -hf unsloth/GLM-4-32B-0414-GGUF:Q4_K_M \
  --ctx-size 8192 -ngl 999 --flash-attn
vLLM
vllm serve THUDM/GLM-4-32B-0414 \
  --max-model-len 8192 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92
Live Token Speed Simulator (TTFT ~2725ms · ~56.1 tok/s)
[GLM-4 32B-0414 · 20.92 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
Purchase break-even
~26.6 months
Est. local power: $4.26 / 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 3090 (Verified Host) 24 GB $0.19 / hr $22.98 / 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) — GLM-4 32B-0414

QLoRA (4b) Fits with Safe Headroom
24.06 GiB
Model Weights: 18.44 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 4.48 GiB · Act: 1.14 GiB
Recommended GPU: Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB (32GB)
LoRA (16b) Exceeds Available GPU Memory
68.16 GiB
Model Weights: 59.6 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 7.04 GiB · Act: 1.52 GiB
Recommended GPU: RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB)
Full BF16 Exceeds Available GPU Memory
247.05 GiB
Model Weights: 59.6 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 184.76 GiB · Act: 2.69 GiB
Recommended GPU: Instinct MI355X 288GB (288GB)

Engineering Sizing Notes & Optimization Playbook

Quick Hardware Verdict

RTX 5090 D (32GB physical, 30.4 GiB usable) runs 4-bit (Q4_K_M) GLM-4 32B-0414 at 8K context using 20.92 GiB with 9.48 GiB of safe headroom (~56.1 tok/s single-stream decode).

KV Cache & Runtime Tuning

GLM-4 32B-0414 uses Dense GQA (32B total, 32B active per token). Moving from 8K to 32K context expands FP16 KV cache from 1.91 GiB to 7.63 GiB; enabling 8-bit KV cache (llama.cpp -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 or vLLM --kv-cache-dtype fp8) saves 3.82 GiB at 32K (reducing total VRAM to 22.82 GiB).

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

GLM-4 32B-0414 VRAM scaling from 4K to 128K context (4K: 19.95 GiB, 8K: 20.92 GiB, 32K: 26.64 GiB, 128K: 49.51 GiB) 4K 19.95 GiB (KV 0.95 GiB) 8K 20.92 GiB (KV 1.91 GiB) 32K 26.64 GiB (KV 7.63 GiB) 128K 49.51 GiB (KV 30.5 GiB) RTX 5090 D (32GB)
Model weights remain constant while attention KV cache grows with context length and batch size.

Quantization Precision & Memory Matrix — GLM-4 32B-0414 @ 8K

Quantization Format Weights (GiB) KV Cache Total VRAM (GiB) Decode Speed Compatibility (RTX 5090 D) Recommended GPU Data Source
Native Weights (BF16 / FP8 / MXFP4 — Lossless) (BF16) 59.6 GiB 1.91 GiB 62.08 GiB (66.66 GB) ~1.7 tok/s Exceeds Available GPU Memory RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) Official checkpoint size
FP8 / GGUF Q8_0 (8-bit — Near-Lossless) (Q8_0) 31.66 GiB 1.91 GiB 34.14 GiB (36.66 GB) ~14.8 tok/s Exceeds Available GPU Memory A40 48GB (48GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF Q6_K (6-bit — High Precision) (Q6_K) 24.44 GiB 1.91 GiB 26.92 GiB (28.91 GB) ~43.1 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB (32GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF Q5_K_M (5-bit — Balanced) (Q5_K_M) 21.39 GiB 1.91 GiB 23.87 GiB (25.63 GB) ~48.8 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB (32GB) Config-derived formula
Q4_K_M / UD-Q4_K_XL / AWQ (4-bit — Recommended) (Q4_K_M) 18.44 GiB 1.91 GiB 20.92 GiB (22.46 GB) ~56.1 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF IQ4_XS (4.25-bit — Compact) (IQ4_XS) 16.1 GiB 1.91 GiB 18.58 GiB (19.95 GB) ~63.6 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF Q3_K_M (3-bit — Low VRAM) (Q3_K_M) 14.8 GiB 1.91 GiB 17.28 GiB (18.55 GB) ~68.7 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF UD-Q2_K_XL (2-bit — Extreme MoE) (UD-Q2_K_XL) 10.62 GiB 1.91 GiB 13.1 GiB (14.07 GB) ~92.7 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB) Config-derived formula

Technical Specifications & FAQ

Does GLM-4 32B-0414 fit on RTX 5090 D (32GB)?

In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, GLM-4 32B-0414 requires 20.92 GiB total GPU memory (18.44 GiB weights + 1.91 GiB KV cache + 0.57 GiB runtime buffers) against 30.4 GiB usable on RTX 5090 D, delivering ~56.1 tok/s decode.

How much VRAM does GLM-4 32B-0414 need at 32K context?

At 32,768 context tokens, GLM-4 32B-0414 (Dense GQA) allocates 7.63 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 26.64 GiB (28.6 GB decimal).

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