Ethereal Stardust 12B — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Ethereal Stardust 12B is a 12.2B-parameter open language model from Vortex5. It supports a context window of up to 131,072 tokens. At Q4_K_M it needs about 8.07 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
108 downloads
5 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- Vortex5
- Parameters
- 12.2B
- Architecture
- MistralForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 131,072 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 131,075
- Release Date
- 2026-05-27
- License
- Apache 2.0
Get Started
HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Ethereal Stardust 12B Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_Kest. | 3.40 | 5.9 GB | 32.4 GB | 5.21 GB | 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements |
| Q3_K_Mest. | 3.90 | 6.7 GB | 33.1 GB | 5.97 GB | 3-bit medium quantization |
| Q4_K_Mest. | 4.80 | 8.1 GB | 34.5 GB | 7.35 GB | 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot |
| Q5_K_Mest. | 5.70 | 9.4 GB | 35.9 GB | 8.73 GB | 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff |
| Q6_Kest. | 6.60 | 10.8 GB | 37.3 GB | 10.10 GB | 6-bit quantization, very good quality |
| Q8_0est. | 8.00 | 13.0 GB | 39.4 GB | 12.25 GB | 8-bit quantization, near-lossless |
| BF16est. | 16.00 | 25.2 GB | 51.6 GB | 24.50 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 Ethereal Stardust 12B?
Q4_K_M · 8.1 GBEthereal Stardust 12B (Q4_K_M) 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 131K context window can add up to 26.4 GB, bringing total usage to 34.5 GB. 39 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 Ethereal Stardust 12B?
Q4_K_M · 8.1 GB49 devices with unified memory can run Ethereal Stardust 12B, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB, iPad Pro M5 13" (16 GB).
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomDecent
— Enough memory, may be tightRelated Models
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Ethereal Stardust 12B need?
Ethereal Stardust 12B requires 8.1 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 25.2 GB at BF16. Full 131K context adds up to 26.4 GB (34.5 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 12.2B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 7.3 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.8 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 27.2 GB (at full 131K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
Q4_K_M8.1 GBQ4_K_M + full context34.5 GB- Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 run Ethereal Stardust 12B?
Yes, at Q8_0 (13.0 GB) or lower. Higher quantizations like BF16 (25.2 GB) exceed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's 24 GB.
- What's the best quantization for Ethereal Stardust 12B?
For Ethereal Stardust 12B, Q4_K_M (8.1 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_M (9.4 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is Q2_K at 5.9 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
Q2_K5.9 GBQ4_K_M ★8.1 GBQ5_K_M9.4 GBQ6_K10.8 GBQ8_013.0 GBBF1625.2 GB★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
- Can I run Ethereal Stardust 12B on a Mac?
Ethereal Stardust 12B requires at least 5.9 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 Ethereal Stardust 12B locally?
Yes — Ethereal Stardust 12B can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 8.1 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Ethereal Stardust 12B?
At Q4_K_M, Ethereal Stardust 12B can reach ~545 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI350X. 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: NVIDIA B200 → 8000 ÷ 8.1 × 0.65 = ~644 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (8.1 GB)
~644 tok/s~81 tok/s~644 tok/s~545 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Ethereal Stardust 12B?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 7.35 GB. The full-precision BF16 version is 24.50 GB. The smallest option (Q2_K) is 5.21 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Ethereal Stardust 12B?
39 consumer GPUs can run Ethereal Stardust 12B at Q4_K_M (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. 26 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
- Which devices can run Ethereal Stardust 12B?
52 devices with unified memory can run Ethereal Stardust 12B at Q4_K_M (8.1 GB), including AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) Laptop, ASUS Ascent GX10, Apple iPhone 17 Pro, Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025, 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.