MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) on H20 141GB HBM3e (141GB) — VRAM, KV Cache & Throughput

Q: Does MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) fit on H20 141GB HBM3e (141GB)?

In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) requires 131.34 GiB total GPU memory (128.84 GiB weights + 1.94 GiB KV cache + 0.56 GiB runtime buffers) against 133.9 GiB usable on H20 141GB HBM3e, delivering ~206.8 tok/s decode.

Q: How much VRAM does MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) need at 32K context?

At 32,768 context tokens, MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) (Sparse MoE + GQA) allocates 7.75 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 137.15 GiB (147.26 GB decimal).

MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) (228.69B total, 10B active, Sparse MoE + GQA) uses 128.84 GiB of 4-bit weights (Q4_K_M), requiring 131.34 GiB total at 8K context and 137.15 GiB at 32K on H20 141GB HBM3e (~206.8 tok/s decode).

Interactive Sizing Workbench

Full Compatibility Report →

Open-Weight Model228.69B / 10B

Weights & QuantizationQ4_K_M · 128.84 GiB

Context Window8,192 (8K)

Target Hardware

141 GB · 4800 GB/s

GPU Count (Tensor Parallel)

Concurrent Batch Size

KV Cache Precision

Inference Engine

System RAM Offload (CPU)0%

Fits with Safe Headroom

Measured GGUF shard size HF config.json ↗

Memory Allocation Breakdown (GiB) 131.34 GiB (141.03 GB) / 141 GiB (93%)

Model Weights: 128.84 GiB KV Cache & State: 1.94 GiB Runtime & Activation Buffers: 0.56 GiB System RAM Offload: 0 GiB

Required GPU Memory

131.34 GiB

141.03 GB (decimal)

Usable Hardware Memory

133.9 GiB

141 GB (physical)

Safe Headroom

+2.56 GiB

93% utilization

Est. Decode Throughput

~206.8 tok/s

10B active params

Est. Prefill Throughput

~7696 tok/s

4K Prompt TTFT: ~532 ms

Est. Cost / 1M Tokens

$3.48

Sparse MoE + GQA · Custom

Recommended Hardware for Current Configuration

Best Single GPU

Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)

~$15,000

Best Value / Used GPU

2x A100 80GB SXM

160GB · ~$24,000

Apple Unified Memory

Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB

~$5,999

Cloud From

DigitalOcean · $2.59 / hr

1x Instinct MI300X 192GB

Production Launch Commands

llama.cpp (GGUF)

llama-server -hf unsloth/MiniMax-M2.5-GGUF:Q4_K_M \
  --ctx-size 8192 -ngl 999 --flash-attn

vLLM

vllm serve MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.5 \
  --max-model-len 8192 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92

Live Token Speed Simulator (TTFT ~532ms · ~206.8 tok/s)

[MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) · 131.34 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

~21.1 months

Est. local power: $15.96 / mo

Provider	Recommended Instance	Total VRAM	Hourly Rate	Monthly at Selected Hours	Billing Mode	Deploy
RunPod	1x B200 180GB (Community Cloud)	180 GB	$5.98 / hr	$727.17 / mo	Per-second	Deploy GPU ↗
Vast.ai	1x B200 180GB (Verified Host)	180 GB	$7.50 / hr	$912.24 / mo	Spot / On-demand	Deploy GPU ↗
*Vultr ($300 Free Credit)**	4x L40S 48GB (Dedicated Instance · $300 Credit*)	192 GB	$6.68 / hr	$812.77 / mo	Hourly	Deploy GPU ↗
Vultr Cloud GPU	4x L40S 48GB (Dedicated Instance)	192 GB	$6.68 / hr	$812.77 / mo	Hourly	Deploy GPU ↗
DigitalOcean	1x Instinct MI300X 192GB (Dedicated Instance)	192 GB	$2.59 / hr	$314.94 / 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) — MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B)

QLoRA (4b) Tight Fit (<8% Headroom)

131.28 GiB

Model Weights: 128.84 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 1.4 GiB · Act: 1.04 GiB

Recommended GPU: Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)

LoRA (16b) Exceeds Available GPU Memory

429.66 GiB

Model Weights: 426.07 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 2.2 GiB · Act: 1.39 GiB

Recommended GPU: 4x H200 141GB SXM (564GB)

Full BF16 Exceeds Available GPU Memory

1749.33 GiB

Model Weights: 426.07 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 1320.82 GiB · Act: 2.44 GiB

Recommended GPU: Multi-GPU Required

Engineering Sizing Notes & Optimization Playbook

Quick Hardware Verdict

H20 141GB HBM3e (141GB physical, 133.9 GiB usable) runs 4-bit (Q4_K_M) MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) at 8K context using 131.34 GiB with 2.56 GiB of safe headroom (~206.8 tok/s single-stream decode).

KV Cache & Runtime Tuning

MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) uses Sparse MoE + GQA (228.69B total, 10B active per token). Moving from 8K to 32K context expands FP16 KV cache from 1.94 GiB to 7.75 GiB; enabling 8-bit KV cache (llama.cpp -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 or vLLM --kv-cache-dtype fp8) saves 3.87 GiB at 32K (reducing total VRAM to 133.28 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 — MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) @ 8K

Quantization Format	Weights (GiB)	KV Cache	Total VRAM (GiB)	Decode Speed	Compatibility (H20 141GB HBM3e)	Recommended GPU	Data Source
Native Weights (BF16 / FP8 / MXFP4 — Lossless) (FP8)	426.07 GiB	1.94 GiB	428.57 GiB (460.17 GB)	~3.9 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Official checkpoint size
FP8 / GGUF Q8_0 (8-bit — Near-Lossless) (Q8_0)	226.44 GiB	1.94 GiB	228.94 GiB (245.82 GB)	~11.6 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Instinct MI325X 256GB (256GB)	Measured GGUF shard size
GGUF Q6_K (6-bit — High Precision) (Q6_K)	174.87 GiB	1.94 GiB	177.37 GiB (190.45 GB)	~25.3 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Instinct MI325X 256GB (256GB)	Measured GGUF shard size
GGUF Q5_K_M (5-bit — Balanced) (Q5_K_M)	151.16 GiB	1.94 GiB	153.66 GiB (164.99 GB)	~58 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)	Measured GGUF shard size
Q4_K_M / UD-Q4_K_XL / AWQ (4-bit — Recommended) (Q4_K_M)	128.84 GiB	1.94 GiB	131.34 GiB (141.03 GB)	~206.8 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)	Measured GGUF shard size
GGUF IQ4_XS (4.25-bit — Compact) (IQ4_XS)	113.53 GiB	1.94 GiB	116.03 GiB (124.59 GB)	~219.9 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)	Measured GGUF shard size
GGUF Q3_K_M (3-bit — Low VRAM) (Q3_K_M)	101.77 GiB	1.94 GiB	104.27 GiB (111.96 GB)	~231.2 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)	Measured GGUF shard size
GGUF UD-Q2_K_XL (2-bit — Extreme MoE) (UD-Q2_K_XL)	80.02 GiB	1.94 GiB	82.52 GiB (88.61 GB)	~255.3 tok/s	Fits with Safe Headroom	RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB)	Measured GGUF shard size

Technical Specifications & FAQ

Does MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) fit on H20 141GB HBM3e (141GB)?

In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) requires 131.34 GiB total GPU memory (128.84 GiB weights + 1.94 GiB KV cache + 0.56 GiB runtime buffers) against 133.9 GiB usable on H20 141GB HBM3e, delivering ~206.8 tok/s decode.

How much VRAM does MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) need at 32K context?

At 32,768 context tokens, MiniMax M2.5 (229B-A10B) (Sparse MoE + GQA) allocates 7.75 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 137.15 GiB (147.26 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 A6000 (48GB)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)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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