Can RTX 4060 Ti 16GB run Whisper Medium?

Yes — runs locally

~114 tok/sec · Instant — feels like typing. No noticeable delay.

Your VRAM

16 GB

Model size

0.77B

Best quant

Q8_0

VRAM needed

1.9 GB

The verdict

The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16 GB VRAM) handles Whisper Medium comfortably using the Q8_0 quantization, which fits in 1.9 GB. Expected throughput is around 114 tokens/second, which feels Instant — feels like typing. No noticeable delay. in interactive use. Mid-size Whisper model. Strong multilingual speech recognition.

Setup tutorial: Whisper Medium on RTX 4060 Ti 16GB

AI-generated, GPU-specific. Verified commands for your exact hardware.

TL;DR

Run Whisper Medium on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB with Ollama using the Q8_0 quantization. Expect Grade S performance at ~495 tok/sec.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have at least 2GB of free disk space, a 64-bit version of Windows or Linux, the latest NVIDIA drivers (version 525.60 or later), and CUDA 11.8 or later installed.

Expected performance

With the Q8_0 quantization, you can expect ~495 tok/sec performance, utilizing approximately 1.9GB of VRAM. This leaves you with 14.1GB of VRAM headroom for context, allowing for a practical context window of several minutes of audio input.

1. Install runtimeOllama

curl -L https://ollama.ai/install.sh | bash
ollama install whisper

2. Download the model

Download the Q8_0 quantized version of Whisper Medium (1.4GB) from the Hugging Face repository.

ollama pull ggerganov/whisper.cpp:ggml-medium.bin

3. Run it

ollama run whisper --model ggml-medium.bin --device cuda
ollama serve

4. Optimize for RTX 4060 Ti 16GB

For optimal performance on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, use the --n-gpu-layers flag to offload layers to the GPU, and enable flash attention with --flash-attn. Given the 16GB VRAM, you can set --n-gpu-layers to 32 or higher to maximize utilization. Tensor parallelism is not necessary for this model size but can be explored for larger models.

Troubleshooting

Low tokenization speed

Ensure that the CUDA toolkit is correctly installed and that the NVIDIA drivers are up to date. Try increasing the --n-gpu-layers value.

Out of memory errors

Reduce the --n-gpu-layers value to offload more layers to the CPU, or decrease the batch size if applicable.

Inconsistent performance

Check for background processes that might be consuming GPU resources. Ensure that the GPU is not overheating and that it has adequate cooling.

Alternative runtimes

Alternative runtimes include LM Studio, llama.cpp, and Jan. LM Studio is a good choice for a user-friendly interface, while llama.cpp offers more customization options. Jan is suitable for cloud deployments. For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, Ollama provides a balanced approach with ease of use and strong performance.

Full Whisper Medium details →

Other models that run great on RTX 4060 Ti 16GB

FAQ (20)

What GPU do I need to run Whisper Medium?

To run Whisper Medium, you need a GPU with at least 1.9 GB of VRAM. NVIDIA GPUs such as the GTX 1060 or higher are recommended for optimal performance.

Is Whisper Medium good for coding?

Whisper Medium is primarily designed for speech recognition and is not optimized for coding tasks. For coding, models like Codex or CodeLlama are more suitable.

Whisper Medium vs Llama 3.1 8B?

Whisper Medium has 0.77 billion parameters and is specialized for speech recognition, while Llama 3.1 8B has 8 billion parameters and is a general-purpose language model. Llama 3.1 8B is better for text generation but requires more resources.

Can I run Whisper Medium on a Mac?

Yes, you can run Whisper Medium on a Mac. Ensure your Mac has a compatible GPU with at least 1.9 GB of VRAM and the necessary drivers installed.

How much VRAM does Whisper Medium need?

Whisper Medium requires at least 1.9 GB of VRAM to run efficiently. This can vary slightly depending on the quantization level used.

Is Whisper Medium censored?

Whisper Medium is not censored. It is an open-source model released under the MIT license, allowing for unrestricted use and modification.

Is Whisper Medium commercial-use allowed?

Yes, Whisper Medium is licensed under the MIT license, which allows for commercial use without any restrictions.

Whisper Medium context length?

The context length for Whisper Medium is not explicitly defined, but it is designed to handle typical speech segments effectively. For longer audio, you may need to split the input into smaller chunks.

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