Granite Guardian 4.1 8B on AMD EPYC 7002 / 7003 series NAS (128 GB)

Can the AMD EPYC 7002 / 7003 series NAS (128 GB) run Granite Guardian 4.1 8B?

Barely: it runs very slowly

Very slow. At Q8_0 it needs about 18.8 GB of 113 GB usable and makes one decision in about 11.4 s.

Best quant: Q8_0
Time per decision: 11.4 s
Decisions per second: 0.1/s
Input assumed: 512 tokens
Returns: Fixed labels

Best app to run it on the AMD EPYC 7002 / 7003 series NAS (128 GB)

On Linux

Ollama

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp (ggml), MLX (Apple silicon, preview)

One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.
Serves an OpenAI-compatible API that other apps and coding tools can use.

ollama run granite4.1-guardian:8b-q8_0

llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.
LocalAI One OpenAI-compatible server for GGUF guard models and rerankers together.

How we choose: the files published for this model, which apps run in a container on a NAS without a graphics card (models run on its processor), and whether the model fits fully in the memory models can use. Details.

Download Granite Guardian 4.1 8B

Recommended for the AMD EPYC 7002 / 7003 series NAS (128 GB): Q8_0. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run granite4.1-guardian:8b-q8_0

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

Download the Q8_0 file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/ibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b-GGUF:Q8_0

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from IBM, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q8_0, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Very slow: How well it runs on the AMD EPYC 7002 / 7003 series NAS (128 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

PrecisionEditorial precision tier from the model’s published benchmarks, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	37.8 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of the NAS’s memory that models can use (the rest stays with the NAS system and its storage services); fewer when it goes past that limit.	25.0 / 25
SpeedTime for one decision against a 100 ms target: reading the input plus any tokens the model writes.	1.4 / 15
ClarityHow easy the answer is to use in code: a probability or score earns the most, written feedback before a score the least.	12.0 / 15
Match score	76.2 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the AMD EPYC 7002 / 7003 series NAS (128 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q4_K_M`	15.1 GB	113 GB	11.1 s	Very slow	79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	15.9 GB	113 GB	11.2 s	Very slow	81Great quality (A) · 81 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	16.8 GB	113 GB	11.2 s	Very slow	83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	18.8 GB	113 GB	11.4 s	Very slow	84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	26.7 GB	113 GB	12.3 s	Very slow	84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Times are for one request with a 512-token input and about 6 tokens written. Batching servers process many requests at once.

Other hardware that runs it

84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q8_0 · 97 ms · Runs great
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Q6_K · 94 ms · Runs great
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q6_K · 132 ms · Runs great
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q6_K · 135 ms · Runs well
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Q6_K · 171 ms · Runs well
83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Q6_K · 182 ms · Runs well

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.