NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic is a 120.7B-parameter open language model from trohrbaugh in the Nemotron family. It supports a context window of up to 262,144 tokens. At Q4_K_M it needs about 72.89 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
2.3K downloads
1 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- trohrbaugh
- Family
- Nemotron
- Parameters
- 120.7B
- Architecture
- NemotronHForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 262,144 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 131,072
- Release Date
- 2026-03-15
- License
- Other
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How Much VRAM Does NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_Kest. | 3.40 | 51.8 GB | 75.2 GB | 51.28 GB | 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements |
| Q3_K_Mest. | 3.90 | 59.3 GB | 82.8 GB | 58.83 GB | 3-bit medium quantization |
| Q4_K_Mest. | 4.80 | 72.9 GB | 96.3 GB | 72.40 GB | 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot |
| Q5_K_Mest. | 5.70 | 86.5 GB | 109.9 GB | 85.98 GB | 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff |
| Q6_Kest. | 6.60 | 100.0 GB | 123.5 GB | 99.55 GB | 6-bit quantization, very good quality |
| Q8_0est. | 8.00 | 121.2 GB | 144.6 GB | 120.67 GB | 8-bit quantization, near-lossless |
| BF16 | 16.00 | 241.8 GB | 265.3 GB | 241.34 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 NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
Q4_K_M · 72.9 GBNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic (Q4_K_M) requires 72.9 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 95+ GB is recommended. Using the full 262K context window can add up to 23.4 GB, bringing total usage to 96.3 GB. No single GPU has enough memory — multi-GPU or cluster setups are needed.
Which Devices Can Run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
Q4_K_M · 72.9 GB5 devices with unified memory can run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB.
Where to Download NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic
Community quantizations of this model — GGUF for llama.cpp, Ollama, and LM Studio, plus AWQ/MLX variants where available.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic need?
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic requires 72.9 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 241.8 GB at BF16. Full 262K context adds up to 23.4 GB (96.3 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 120.7B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 72.4 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.5 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 23.9 GB (at full 262K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
Q4_K_M72.9 GBQ4_K_M + full context96.3 GB- Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
No — NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic requires at least 51.8 GB at Q2_K, which exceeds the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM.
- What's the best quantization for NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
For NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic, Q4_K_M (72.9 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_M (86.5 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is Q2_K at 51.8 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
Q2_K51.8 GBQ4_K_M ★72.9 GBQ5_K_M86.5 GBQ6_K100.0 GBQ8_0121.2 GBBF16241.8 GB★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
- Can I run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic on a Mac?
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic requires at least 51.8 GB at Q2_K, 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 NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic locally?
Yes — NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 72.9 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
At Q4_K_M, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic can reach ~40 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 ÷ 72.9 × 0.55 = ~40 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (72.9 GB)
~40 tok/s~30 tok/s~25 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 72.40 GB. The full-precision BF16 version is 241.34 GB. The smallest option (Q2_K) is 51.28 GB.
- Which GPUs can run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
No single consumer GPU has enough VRAM to run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic at Q4_K_M (72.9 GB). Multi-GPU or professional hardware is required.
- Which devices can run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic?
5 devices with unified memory can run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 Heretic at Q4_K_M (72.9 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.