RTX 5080 for local LLMs — what fits in 16 GB & the real cost

Rent a RTX 5080 from $0.21/hr ($0 markup, as of 2026-07-02). 287 of the 445 models in our catalog fit its 16 GB — plus the honest own-vs-rent-vs-API math, electricity and amortization included.

Three honest ways to run AI on a RTX 5080

• Own it: buy the card and pay electricity + amortization — local is real money, not "$0".
• Rent it: from $0.21/GPU-hr on your own vendor account (as of 2026-07-02, $0 markup — we never resell compute).
• Skip it: run a comparable open model through your own API key, paying per million tokens (prices as of 2026-07-06).

Rent a RTX 5080 — real vendor rates, $0 markup

• Vast.ai: $0.21/GPU-hr — vendor's own price as of 2026-07-02; you pay them directly.

What fits in 16 GB

• 287 of the 445 models in the Spanvero catalog fit on one RTX 5080 at a sensible quant (context capped at 16k for the estimate). Most capable first:
• gpt oss safeguard 20b (openai, 21.5B) — ~16 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.19/1M tokens.
• gpt-oss-20b (OpenAI, 21B) — ~15 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.08/1M tokens.
• gpt oss 20b BF16 (unsloth, 20.9B) — ~15 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.27/1M tokens (size estimate).
• NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B NVFP4 (nvidia, 18.2B) — ~13 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.25/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Qwen3 30B A3B NVFP4 (RedHatAI, 17.5B) — ~13 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.24/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Qwen3 32B NVFP4 (nvidia, 17.2B) — ~15 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.24/1M tokens (size estimate).
• deepseek moe 16b base (deepseek-ai, 16.4B) — ~12 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.23/1M tokens (size estimate).
• deepseek moe 16b chat (deepseek-ai, 16.4B) — ~12 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.23/1M tokens (size estimate).
• LLaDA2.0 mini (inclusionAI, 16.3B) — ~12 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.23/1M tokens (size estimate).
• DeepSeek-Coder-V2-Lite Instruct (DeepSeek, 15.7B) — ~11 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.23/1M tokens (size estimate).
• DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat (deepseek-ai, 15.7B) — ~15 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.23/1M tokens (size estimate).
• DeepSeek V2 Lite (deepseek-ai, 15.7B) — ~15 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.23/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Qwen3 30B A3B NVFP4 (nvidia, 15.6B) — ~12 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.22/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Qwen2.5 Coder 14B Instruct (Qwen, 14.8B) — ~14 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.22/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Qwen2.5 14B Instruct (Qwen, 14.8B) — ~14 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.22/1M tokens (size estimate).

• gpt oss safeguard 20b — full cost breakdown
• gpt-oss-20b — full cost breakdown
• gpt oss 20b BF16 — full cost breakdown
• NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B NVFP4 — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 30B A3B NVFP4 — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 32B NVFP4 — full cost breakdown
• deepseek moe 16b base — full cost breakdown
• deepseek moe 16b chat — full cost breakdown
• LLaDA2.0 mini — full cost breakdown
• DeepSeek-Coder-V2-Lite Instruct — full cost breakdown
• DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat — full cost breakdown
• DeepSeek V2 Lite — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 30B A3B NVFP4 — full cost breakdown
• Qwen2.5 Coder 14B Instruct — full cost breakdown
• Qwen2.5 14B Instruct — full cost breakdown

Own a RTX 5080 vs rent it — the honest math

• NVIDIA RTX 5080 16GB: street price $1,250.00 (as of 2026-07-06; videocardprices.com daily retail tracker, retrieved 2026-07-06 — lowest new listing $1,249.99 (Amazon); launch MSRP $999) → $1.1416/day amortized over 3 years.
• Electricity ≈ $0.1712/1M tokens at 360 W and $0.19/kWh (EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A — U.S. residential average, Apr 2026, as of 2026-07-02), assuming ~110 tok/s (8B-class model at Q4).
• vs renting: owning wins above ~8.0 active hours/day at the cheapest logged rate ($0.21/hr).
• vs API: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at $0.03/1M (as of 2026-07-06) is cheaper than the electricity alone — owning never breaks even at any volume.

Own a RTX 5080 vs rent it — the honest math

• Used NVIDIA RTX 5080 16GB (used market): street price $1,145.00 (as of 2026-07-06; videocardprices.com eBay used tracker, retrieved 2026-07-06 (~$1,145)) → $1.0457/day amortized over 3 years.
• Electricity ≈ $0.1712/1M tokens at 360 W and $0.19/kWh (EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A — U.S. residential average, Apr 2026, as of 2026-07-02), assuming ~110 tok/s (8B-class model at Q4).
• vs renting: owning wins above ~7.4 active hours/day at the cheapest logged rate ($0.21/hr).
• vs API: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at $0.03/1M (as of 2026-07-06) is cheaper than the electricity alone — owning never breaks even at any volume.

Keep exploring

• Can a RTX 5080 run it? Check any model
• All GPUs — rental rates compared
• Can I run it? Check any model against your hardware
• Free cost calculator — local vs rent vs API
• All models that run on 16 GB of VRAM
• How we stay honest

Building a local rig? Hardware that matches these numbers

• 16 GB VRAM GPU — Shop on Amazon
• 1000 W+ 80+ Gold PSU (ATX 3.0) — Shop on Amazon
• Electricity usage monitor (watt meter) — Shop on Amazon

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Open the free Spanvero advisor → · GPU rates as of 2026-07-02. Honest, $0-markup — your own accounts, we never resell compute. © 2026 Cynosure LLC.