Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B is a 3.8B-parameter open language model from NVIDIA in the Nemotron family. It supports a context window of up to 262,144 tokens. At BF16 it needs about 8.13 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
29.0K downloads
30 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- NVIDIA
- Family
- Nemotron
- Parameters
- 3.8B
- Architecture
- NemotronLabsDiffusionModel
- Context Length
- 262,144 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 131,072
- Release Date
- 2026-03-02
- License
- Other
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HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BF16est. | 16.00 | 8.1 GB | 28.9 GB | 7.66 GB | Brain floating point 16 — preferred for training |
est.= calculated VRAM estimate; no published GGUF file found for that quantization yet. Other rows are verified against real community uploads.
Which GPUs Can Run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B?
BF16 · 8.1 GBNemotron Labs Diffusion 3B (BF16) requires 8.1 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 11+ GB is recommended. Using the full 262K context window can add up to 20.8 GB, bringing total usage to 28.9 GB. 28 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroom
Decent
— Enough VRAM, may be tightWhich Devices Can Run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B?
BF16 · 8.1 GB27 devices with unified memory can run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomRelated Models
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B need?
Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B requires 8.1 GB of VRAM at BF16. Full 262K context adds up to 20.8 GB (28.9 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 3.8B × 16 bits ÷ 8 = 7.7 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.4 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 21.2 GB (at full 262K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
BF168.1 GBBF16 + full context28.9 GB- Can I run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B on a Mac?
Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B requires at least 8.1 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 Labs Diffusion 3B locally?
Yes — Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B can run locally on consumer hardware. At BF16 quantization it needs 8.1 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B?
At BF16, Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B can reach ~359 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI300X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~81 tok/s. 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 ÷ 8.1 × 0.55 = ~359 tok/s
Estimated speed at BF16 (8.1 GB)
~359 tok/s~81 tok/s~268 tok/s~222 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B?
At BF16, the download is about 7.66 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B?
28 consumer GPUs can run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B at BF16 (8.1 GB). Top options include AMD Radeon RX 6800, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. 17 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
- Which devices can run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B?
27 devices with unified memory can run Nemotron Labs Diffusion 3B at BF16 (8.1 GB), including Mac Mini M4 (16 GB), Mac Mini M4 (32 GB), Mac Mini M4 Pro (24 GB), Mac Mini M4 Pro (48 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.