Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview is a 32.2B-parameter open language model from IBM. It supports a context window of up to 131,072 tokens. At BF16 it needs about 65.32 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
395 downloads
23 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- IBM
- Parameters
- 32.2B
- Architecture
- GraniteSwitchForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 131,072 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 100,364
- Release Date
- 2026-05-24
- License
- Apache 2.0
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HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BF16 | 16.00 | 65.3 GB | 99.7 GB | 64.48 GB | Brain floating point 16 — preferred for training |
Which GPUs Can Run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview?
BF16 · 65.3 GBGranite Switch 4.1 30B Preview (BF16) requires 65.3 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 85+ GB is recommended. Using the full 131K context window can add up to 34.4 GB, bringing total usage to 99.7 GB. No single GPU has enough memory — multi-GPU or cluster setups are needed.
Which Devices Can Run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview?
BF16 · 65.3 GB5 devices with unified memory can run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview need?
Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview requires 65.3 GB of VRAM at BF16. Full 131K context adds up to 34.4 GB (99.7 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 32.2B × 16 bits ÷ 8 = 64.5 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.8 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 35.2 GB (at full 131K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
BF1665.3 GBBF16 + full context99.7 GB- Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview?
No — Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview requires at least 65.3 GB at BF16, which exceeds the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM.
- Can I run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview on a Mac?
Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview requires at least 65.3 GB at BF16, which exceeds the unified memory of most consumer Macs. You would need a Mac Studio or Mac Pro with a high-memory configuration.
- Can I run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview locally?
Yes — Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview can run locally on consumer hardware. At BF16 quantization it needs 65.3 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview?
At BF16, Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview can reach ~45 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI300X. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.
tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency
Example: AMD Instinct MI300X → 5300 ÷ 65.3 × 0.55 = ~45 tok/s
Estimated speed at BF16 (65.3 GB)
~45 tok/s~33 tok/s~28 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview?
At BF16, the download is about 64.48 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview?
No single consumer GPU has enough VRAM to run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview at BF16 (65.3 GB). Multi-GPU or professional hardware is required.
- Which devices can run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview?
5 devices with unified memory can run Granite Switch 4.1 30B Preview at BF16 (65.3 GB), including Mac Pro M2 Ultra (192 GB), Mac Studio M2 Ultra (192 GB), Mac Studio M4 Max (128 GB), NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB. Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.