AM AMD Consumer Discrete GPU

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

Runs downloadable LLMs up to ~26B at Q4, ~112.5-137.5 tok/s on an 8B model.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
20GB
VRAM
800
GB/s bandwidth
26B
Max model (Q4)
$899
MSRP

What you can run

At 8k context, FP16 KV. Full-speed tok/s holds up to "max ctx"; beyond it the context spills to system RAM (CPU/PCIe offload) and drops to the degraded figure.

Model sizeFP16Q8Q4
3B 84-102.7 t/s
≤166k ctx · then ~4.2-5.1 (slow)
168-205.3 t/s
≤212k ctx · then ~8.4-10.3 (slow)
300-366.7 t/s
≤232k ctx · then ~15-18.3 (slow)
7-8B 31.5-38.5 t/s
≤7k ctx · then ~1.6-1.9 (slow)
63-77 t/s
≤68k ctx · then ~3.2-3.9 (slow)
112.5-137.5 t/s
≤95k ctx · then ~5.6-6.9 (slow)
13B won't run 38.8-47.4 t/s
≤24k ctx · then ~1.9-2.4 (slow)
69.2-84.6 t/s
≤59k ctx · then ~3.5-4.2 (slow)
32B won't run won't run won't run
70B won't run won't run won't run
120B won't run won't run won't run
400B won't run won't run won't run

Estimate: tok/s ≈ bandwidth ÷ (params × bytes/param) × efficiency (AMD). Cyan = fits ~18.4 GB usable. Beyond "ctx", KV spills to system RAM (CPU/PCIe offload) (rough degraded speed shown).

What else you need for a full build

Minimum supporting components for a desktop built around the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT. Guidance — exact needs depend on your case, other parts and how much you offload to system RAM.

Power supply
≥ 750W · 80+ Gold
Headroom over the 315W card plus the rest of the build.
System RAM
≥ 32 GB · 64 GB recommended
At least the 20 GB of VRAM; 2× lets you CPU-offload models larger than VRAM.
Motherboard
1× free PCIe x16 slot (4.0/5.0)
A full-length x16 electrical slot; PCIe 4.0 is ample, 5.0 future-proofs.
CPU
Any modern multi-core
The GPU runs inference; more cores and memory channels only matter when offloading to RAM.
Storage
≥ 1 TB NVMe SSD
Weights are large — a 70B model at Q4 is ~40 GB; budget for a few.

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About the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is a discrete GPU from AMD on RDNA 3, 2022. For local genAI the numbers that matter are its 20 GB (how big a model + context fits) and 800 GB/s bandwidth (generation speed). Plan for a ~750W power supply.

Frequently asked questions

What size LLM can the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT run?

With ~18.4 GB usable it runs up to ~26B at Q4 (~7.5B at FP16) at 8k context. Bigger spills into system RAM (CPU/PCIe offload) and slows sharply.

How many tokens/sec does the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT generate?

Generation is bandwidth-bound. At 800 GB/s an 8B model at Q4 runs ~112.5-137.5 tok/s (estimate).

Why does long context slow it down?

The KV cache for the context must also fit fast memory; once weights+KV exceed 18.4 GB it spills to system RAM (CPU/PCIe offload) and throughput collapses. Each row shows the max usable context.

What else do I need to run the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT?

Besides the card: a ≥750W 80+ Gold power supply, at least 20GB of system RAM (2× the 20GB VRAM is ideal for CPU offload), a free PCIe x16 slot, any modern multi-core CPU, and a ≥1TB NVMe SSD for model weights.