Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is a 31.6B-parameter open language model from NVIDIA. It supports a context window of up to 262,144 tokens. At BF16 it needs about 63.53 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
49.4K downloads
503 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- NVIDIA
- Parameters
- 31.6B
- Architecture
- NemotronHForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 262,144 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 131,072
- Release Date
- 2026-05-01
- License
- Other
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HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BF16 | 16.00 | 63.5 GB | 72.6 GB | 63.16 GB | Brain floating point 16 — preferred for training |
Which GPUs Can Run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B?
BF16 · 63.5 GBNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B (BF16) requires 63.5 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 83+ GB is recommended. Using the full 262K context window can add up to 9.1 GB, bringing total usage to 72.6 GB. No single GPU has enough memory — multi-GPU or cluster setups are needed.
Which Devices Can Run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B?
BF16 · 63.5 GB8 devices with unified memory can run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB, Mac Studio M4 Max (64 GB).
Runs great
— Plenty of headroom
Decent
— Enough memory, may be tightRelated Models
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B need?
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B requires 63.5 GB of VRAM at BF16. Full 262K context adds up to 9.1 GB (72.6 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 31.6B × 16 bits ÷ 8 = 63.2 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.3 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 9.4 GB (at full 262K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
BF1663.5 GBBF16 + full context72.6 GB- Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B?
No — Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B requires at least 63.5 GB at BF16, which exceeds the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM.
- Can I run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B on a Mac?
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B requires at least 63.5 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 Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B locally?
Yes — Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B can run locally on consumer hardware. At BF16 quantization it needs 63.5 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B?
At BF16, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B can reach ~46 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 ÷ 63.5 × 0.55 = ~46 tok/s
Estimated speed at BF16 (63.5 GB)
~46 tok/s~34 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 Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B?
At BF16, the download is about 63.16 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B?
No single consumer GPU has enough VRAM to run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B at BF16 (63.5 GB). Multi-GPU or professional hardware is required.
- Which devices can run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B?
8 devices with unified memory can run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B at BF16 (63.5 GB), including Mac Pro M2 Ultra (192 GB), Mac Studio M2 Ultra (192 GB), Mac Studio M4 Max (128 GB), Mac Studio M4 Max (64 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.