Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) on H200 141GB SXM (141GB) — VRAM, KV Cache & Throughput

Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) (198B total, 11B active, Sparse MoE + GQA) uses 112 GiB of 4-bit weights (Q4_K_M), requiring 112.91 GiB total at 8K context and 113.76 GiB at 32K on H200 141GB SXM (~203.3 tok/s decode).

Interactive Sizing Workbench

Full Compatibility Report →
141 GB · 4800 GB/s
Fits with Safe Headroom
Config-derived formula HF config.json ↗
Memory Allocation Breakdown (GiB) 112.91 GiB (121.24 GB) / 141 GiB (80%)
Model Weights: 112 GiB KV Cache & State: 0.35 GiB Runtime & Activation Buffers: 0.56 GiB System RAM Offload: 0 GiB
Required GPU Memory
112.91 GiB
121.24 GB (decimal)
Usable Hardware Memory
133.9 GiB
141 GB (physical)
Safe Headroom
+20.99 GiB
80% utilization
Est. Decode Throughput
~203.3 tok/s
11B active params
Est. Prefill Throughput
~23376 tok/s
4K Prompt TTFT: ~175 ms
Est. Cost / 1M Tokens
$3.54
Sparse MoE + GQA · Apache-2.0

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 stepfun-ai/Step-3.7-Flash-GGUF:Q4_K_M \
  --ctx-size 8192 -ngl 999 --flash-attn
vLLM
vllm serve stepfun-ai/Step-3.7-Flash \
  --max-model-len 8192 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92
Live Token Speed Simulator (TTFT ~175ms · ~203.3 tok/s)
[Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) · 112.91 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
~35.7 months
Est. local power: $15.96 / mo
Provider Recommended Instance Total VRAM Hourly Rate Monthly at Selected Hours Billing Mode Deploy
RunPod 1x H200 141GB SXM (Community Cloud) 141 GB $3.59 / hr $436.54 / mo Per-second Deploy GPU ↗
Vast.ai 1x H200 141GB SXM (Verified Host · NVL) 141 GB $3.87 / hr $470.47 / 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) — Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B)

QLoRA (4b) Fits with Safe Headroom
114.62 GiB
Model Weights: 112 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 1.54 GiB · Act: 1.08 GiB
Recommended GPU: Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)
LoRA (16b) Exceeds Available GPU Memory
372.65 GiB
Model Weights: 368.8 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 2.42 GiB · Act: 1.43 GiB
Recommended GPU: 4x H200 141GB SXM (564GB)
Full BF16 Exceeds Available GPU Memory
1514.6 GiB
Model Weights: 368.8 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 1143.28 GiB · Act: 2.52 GiB
Recommended GPU: Multi-GPU Required

Engineering Sizing Notes & Optimization Playbook

Quick Hardware Verdict

H200 141GB SXM (141GB physical, 133.9 GiB usable) runs 4-bit (Q4_K_M) Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) at 8K context using 112.91 GiB with 20.99 GiB of safe headroom (~203.3 tok/s single-stream decode).

KV Cache & Runtime Tuning

Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) uses Sparse MoE + GQA (198B total, 11B active per token). Moving from 8K to 32K context expands FP16 KV cache from 0.35 GiB to 1.2 GiB; enabling 8-bit KV cache (llama.cpp -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 or vLLM --kv-cache-dtype fp8) saves 0.6 GiB at 32K (reducing total VRAM to 113.16 GiB).

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

Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) VRAM scaling from 4K to 128K context (4K: 112.77 GiB, 8K: 112.91 GiB, 32K: 113.76 GiB, 128K: 117.13 GiB) 4K 112.77 GiB (KV 0.21 GiB) 8K 112.91 GiB (KV 0.35 GiB) 32K 113.76 GiB (KV 1.2 GiB) 128K 117.13 GiB (KV 4.57 GiB) H200 141GB SXM (141GB)
Model weights remain constant while attention KV cache grows with context length and batch size.

Quantization Precision & Memory Matrix — Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) @ 8K

Quantization Format Weights (GiB) KV Cache Total VRAM (GiB) Decode Speed Compatibility (H200 141GB SXM) Recommended GPU Data Source
Native Weights (BF16 / FP8 / MXFP4 — Lossless) (BF16) 368.8 GiB 0.35 GiB 369.71 GiB (396.97 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) 195.93 GiB 0.35 GiB 196.84 GiB (211.36 GB) ~14.5 tok/s Exceeds Available GPU Memory Instinct MI325X 256GB (256GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF Q6_K (6-bit — High Precision) (Q6_K) 151.21 GiB 0.35 GiB 152.12 GiB (163.34 GB) ~54.4 tok/s Exceeds Available GPU Memory Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF Q5_K_M (5-bit — Balanced) (Q5_K_M) 131.26 GiB 0.35 GiB 132.17 GiB (141.92 GB) ~185.9 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB) Config-derived formula
Q4_K_M / UD-Q4_K_XL / AWQ (4-bit — Recommended) (Q4_K_M) 112 GiB 0.35 GiB 112.91 GiB (121.24 GB) ~203.3 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF IQ4_XS (4.25-bit — Compact) (IQ4_XS) 98.12 GiB 0.35 GiB 99.03 GiB (106.33 GB) ~218.1 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF Q3_K_M (3-bit — Low VRAM) (Q3_K_M) 90.26 GiB 0.35 GiB 91.17 GiB (97.89 GB) ~227.4 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB) Config-derived formula
GGUF UD-Q2_K_XL (2-bit — Extreme MoE) (UD-Q2_K_XL) 63.6 GiB 0.35 GiB 64.51 GiB (69.27 GB) ~266 tok/s Fits with Safe Headroom RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) Config-derived formula

Technical Specifications & FAQ

Does Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) fit on H200 141GB SXM (141GB)?

In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) requires 112.91 GiB total GPU memory (112 GiB weights + 0.35 GiB KV cache + 0.56 GiB runtime buffers) against 133.9 GiB usable on H200 141GB SXM, delivering ~203.3 tok/s decode.

How much VRAM does Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) need at 32K context?

At 32,768 context tokens, Step-3.7 Flash (198B-A11B) (Sparse MoE + GQA) allocates 1.2 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 113.76 GiB (122.15 GB decimal).

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