Baichuan2 13B Base — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
Chat
Baichuan2-13B-Base is Baichuan Intelligence's 13-billion-parameter base language model — pretrained, not instruction-tuned — from the second-generation Baichuan series, trained on 2.6 trillion tokens of high-quality Chinese and English text. At release it topped same-size open models on Chinese and English benchmarks spanning general knowledge, law, medicine, math, code, and multilingual translation; a separate Baichuan2-13B-Chat model built on top of it adds instruction and safety tuning. As a 13-billion-parameter dense model, it fits on a single consumer GPU once quantized. It is released under a custom Baichuan2 community license: free for academic research and for commercial use once a developer applies for and receives a free commercial license from Baichuan by email. It was published in September 2023.
Runs great on a 24 GB GPU
Runs from 12 GB (Q4_K_M · 16K)Best on 24 GB (Q4_K_M · ~76 tok/s · 32K)Macs from 16 GB (Q4_K_M · ~16 tok/s)
Other
Reference GPU · RTX 4090 24 GB
Estimates, ±20% · how we estimate
Run Baichuan2 13B Base
One recommended way. Every other method, OS and quant is in the step-by-step guide.Each way opens a step-by-step guide for your OS and quant.
Recommended
ollama run hf.co/jinao/Baichuan2-13B-Base-Q8_0-GGUFQ4_K_M fits fully on the RTX 4090 · 12.5 GB free · 16K context
Download: Baichuan2-13B-Base-Q8_0-Q4_K_M.gguf7.80 GBjinao
Ways to runOther ways
each opens step-by-stepRun in cloud
Runs on RTX 3090 (24 GB) (12 GB headroom) · Q4_K_M
- Generation speed
- ~71 tok/s
- generation speed
- Cost per 1M output tokens
- $0.75
- per 1M output tokens
How Much VRAM Does Baichuan2 13B Base Need?
Select a quantization level; the listed hardware adheres to it.
| Quantization | VRAM | +32K | On RTX 4090 (reference) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 GB | 12.4 GB | 2-bit · K-quant — 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements | Fits: 32K context · ~108 tok/s | |
| 7.0 GB | 13.3 GB | 3-bit medium — 3-bit medium quantization | Fits: 32K context · ~94 tok/s | |
| 8.6 GB | 14.9 GB | 4-bit medium — 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot | Fits: 32K context · ~76 tok/s | |
| 10.2 GB | 16.5 GB | 5-bit medium — 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff | Fits: 32K context · ~64 tok/s | |
| 11.8 GB | 18.1 GB | 6-bit, very good — 6-bit quantization, very good quality | Fits: 32K context · ~56 tok/s | |
| 14.3 GB | 20.6 GB | 8-bit, near-lossless — 8-bit quantization, near-lossless | Fits: 32K context · ~46 tok/s | |
| 28.6 GB | 34.9 GB | 16-bit · bfloat — Brain floating point 16 — preferred for training | Does not fit: needs 31.5 GB |
Selected Q4_K_M
4-bit medium quantization11.5GBat 16K context
- Weights
- 7.9 GB
- KV cache
- 3.4 GB
- Overhead
- 0.3 GB
Fits RTX 4090 (reference) · 12.5 GB free · ~76 tok/s
≥50 tok/s needs ≥659 GB/s · RTX 5090 ~136, RTX 3090 Ti ~76
Which Hardware Can Run Baichuan2 13B Base?
Q4_K_M · 8.6 GBBaichuan2 13B Base (Q4_K_M) requires 8.6 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 12+ GB is recommended. 40 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. 150 devices with unified memory can run Baichuan2 13B Base, including Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256GB), Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 512GB), Mac Mini M2 Pro (16 GB).
12 GB
12 GB tier →fits · 0.5 GB free · up to 16K ctx
10 GPUs
RTX 3080 Ti~69Simulate output on RTX 3080 TiRTX 5070~51Simulate output on RTX 5070RTX 4070~38Simulate output on RTX 407020 GB
fits · 8.5 GB free · up to 32K ctx
1 GPU
RX 7900 XT~56Simulate output on RX 7900 XT32–40 GB
fits · 20.5 GB free · up to 32K ctx
1 GPU · 3 Mac classes · 4 device families
RTX 5090~136Simulate output on RTX 5090M5 Max36 GB~38Simulate output on Mac Studio M5 Max (36 GB)M532 GB~13Simulate output on MacBook Air 13" M5 (32 GB)Orin~16Simulate output on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 32GBSnapdragon X Elite (X1E-80-100)~10Simulate output on Snapdragon X Elite Copilot+ PC
By VRAM tier · typical GPUs and Macs at Q4_K_M
How good is Baichuan2 13B Base?
llmrun Score blends public benchmark boards into one number; 100 = the average open model.
Not enough data yet for an llmrun Score.
A Score needs results on enough independent boards. How the Composite Score is built
Benchmarks
The 6 boards that weigh most in the llmrun Score, of 7 with a result for this model; badges show who ran the test.
- MMLU
Epoch AI · Sep 2023Lab-reported
Lab-reported59.2%
#49/85 open
- BIG-Bench Hard
Epoch AI · Sep 2023Lab-reported
Lab-reported49.0%
#20/38 open
- GSM8K
Epoch AI · Sep 2023Lab-reported
Lab-reported52.8%
#31/62 open
- HellaSwag
Epoch AI · Sep 2023Lab-reported
Lab-reported70.8%
#32/47 open
- ARC Challenge
Epoch AI · Sep 2023Lab-reported
Lab-reported38.0%
#45/56 open
- BoolQ
Epoch AI · Sep 2023Lab-reported
Lab-reported67.0%
#29/38 open
Alternatives to Baichuan2 13B Base
Baichuan family · 6 models →Similar models
6| Model | Score | VRAM | tok/s | Why it is similar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemma 3 12B ITGoogle | 74.2 | 10.9 GB | ~82 | same size |
| Mistral Nemo Base 2407Mistral AI | — | 11 GB | ~81 | same size |
| Phi 3 Medium 128k InstructMicrosoft | — | 12 GB | ~72 | same size |
| Llama 2 13B Chat HFMeta | — | 11.5 GB | ~76 | same size |
| Vicuna 13B V1.3LMSYS | — | 8.6 GB | ~76 | same size |
| Vllm Translategemma 12B ITchbae624 | — | 9.8 GB | ~73 | same size |
Specifications
- Publisher
- baichuan-inc
- Family
- Baichuan
- Parameters
- 13B
- Architecture
- BaichuanForCausalLM
- Vocabulary Size
- 125,696
- Release Date
- 2023-08-30
- License
- Other
Frequently Asked Questions
How much VRAM does Baichuan2 13B Base need?
Baichuan2 13B Base requires 8.6 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 28.6 GB at BF16.
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 13B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 7.8 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.8 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
Fit ratings and hardware model lists check this model with room for a 16K-token context, which needs a little more memory.
VRAM usage by quantization
Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 run Baichuan2 13B Base?
Yes, at Q8_0 (14.3 GB) or lower. Higher quantizations like BF16 (28.6 GB) exceed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's 24 GB.
What's the best quantization for Baichuan2 13B Base?
For Baichuan2 13B Base, Q4_K_M (8.6 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_M (10.2 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is Q2_K at 6.1 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
Can I run Baichuan2 13B Base on a Mac?
Yes — Mac Mini M2 Pro (16 GB) and 133 other Macs can run Baichuan2 13B Base. Apple Silicon uses unified memory, so the model shares RAM with the system. At Q4_K_M you need at least 8.6 GB of usable unified memory (RAM minus macOS overhead).
Can I run Baichuan2 13B Base locally?
Yes — Baichuan2 13B Base can run locally on consumer hardware. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
How fast is Baichuan2 13B Base?
At Q4_K_M, Baichuan2 13B Base can reach ~559 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI350X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~76 tok/s. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.
tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency
Example: NVIDIA B200 → 8000 ÷ 8.58 × 0.65 = ~606 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (8.6 GB)
Real-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
What's the download size of Baichuan2 13B Base?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 7.80 GB. The full-precision BF16 version is 26.00 GB. The smallest option (Q2_K) is 5.53 GB.
Which GPUs can run Baichuan2 13B Base?
40 consumer GPUs can run Baichuan2 13B Base at Q4_K_M. Top options include AMD Radeon RX 6800, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. 26 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
Which devices can run Baichuan2 13B Base?
150 devices with unified memory can run Baichuan2 13B Base at Q4_K_M (8.6 GB), including AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) Laptop, ASUS Ascent GX10, Beelink GTR9 Pro (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB), Framework Desktop (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.