MiniCPM5 2B
2.5B parameters · 128k context · Apache License 2.0 · released 2026-09-06
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In short
MiniCPM5 2B is an open model from openbmb with 2.5B parameters. At mlx-4bit, MiniCPM5 2B needs about 2 GB of memory at 8k context and 5 GB at 64k, counting the weights, the KV cache and runtime buffers. The cheapest hardware in the UK that runs MiniCPM5 2B fully in memory at 64k context is the NVIDIA Tesla P40, £261 at eBay, at about 39 tok/s (estimated).
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
What to run it on in the UK
Fully in memory at 64k context, priced at retailers today.
Cheapest
NVIDIA Tesla P4039tok/sest.Q8_0
£261
Best value
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB86tok/sest.Q8_0
£466
Fastest
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090202tok/sest.Q8_0
£5,000
Mac
Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB32tok/sest.Q8_0
£3,000
All hardware that runs it
Everything we price, best value first. Two cards split the model by layers.
| Hardware | Quant | Fits | Decode | Price | tok/s per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Tesla P40 | Q8_0 | fits | 39 tok/s | £261 | 149.6 |
| AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT | Q8_0 | fits | 29 tok/s | £348 | 82.7 |
| Intel Arc B580 | Q8_0 | fits | 42 tok/s | £349 | 119.1 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | Q8_0 | fits | 41 tok/s | £390 | 104.1 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB | Q8_0 | fits | 86 tok/s | £466 | 184.0 |
| AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB | Q8_0 | fits | 32 tok/s | £499 | 64.2 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | Q8_0 | fits | 51 tok/s | £550 | 91.8 |
| AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT | Q8_0 | fits | 62 tok/s | £568 | 109.9 |
| Intel Arc A770 16GB | Q8_0 | fits | 51 tok/s | £588 | 86.6 |
| AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | Q8_0 | fits | 64 tok/s | £670 | 95.6 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 | Q8_0 | fits | 76 tok/s | £695 | 109.1 |
| Intel Arc Pro B60 | Q8_0 | fits | 42 tok/s | £742 | 55.9 |
| Mac mini M4 16GB | Q8_0 | fits | 14 tok/s | £765 | 18.6 |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | Q8_0 | fits | 80 tok/s | £789 | 101.4 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super | Q8_0 | fits | 57 tok/s | £874 | 65.0 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super | Q8_0 | fits | 76 tok/s | £950 | 79.8 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | Q8_0 | fits | 101 tok/s | £975 | 103.6 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | Q8_0 | fits | 33 tok/s | £977 | 33.3 |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | Q8_0 | fits | 96 tok/s | £999 | 96.1 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 | Q8_0 | fits | 108 tok/s | £1,199 | 90.3 |
| Mac mini M4 32GB | Q8_0 | fits | 14 tok/s | £1,200 | 11.8 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super | Q8_0 | fits | 83 tok/s | £1,429 | 58.1 |
| AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 | Q8_0 | fits | 64 tok/s | £1,674 | 38.2 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | Q8_0 | fits | 106 tok/s | £1,707 | 61.8 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | Q8_0 | fits | 114 tok/s | £2,199 | 51.7 |
| Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB | Q8_0 | fits | 32 tok/s | £3,000 | 10.8 |
| GMKtec EVO-X2 Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB | Q8_0 | fits | 26 tok/s | £3,320 | 7.7 |
| Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB | Q8_0 | fits | 65 tok/s | £3,399 | 19.0 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 | Q8_0 | fits | 202 tok/s | £5,000 | 40.4 |
| Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB | Q8_0 | fits | 97 tok/s | £5,499 | 17.6 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | Q8_0 | fits | 114 tok/s | £6,015 | 18.9 |
| Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | Q8_0 | fits | 97 tok/s | £8,499 | 11.4 |
| Mac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB | Q8_0 | fits | 97 tok/s | £17,495 | 5.5 |
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell | Q8_0 | fits | 202 tok/s | £29,504 | 6.8 |
| Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB | Q8_0 | fits | 65 tok/s | – | – |
| Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB | Q8_0 | fits | 32 tok/s | – | – |
| Framework Desktop Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB | Q8_0 | fits | 26 tok/s | – | – |
| NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GB | Q8_0 | fits | 31 tok/s | – | – |
| ASUS Ascent GX10 128GB | Q8_0 | fits | 31 tok/s | – | – |
| Framework Desktop Ryzen AI Max+ 395 64GB | Q8_0 | fits | 26 tok/s | – | – |
Memory needed
Weights, KV cache and runtime buffers at each context length (KV cache at fp16).
| Quant | File | @8k | @32k | @64k | @128k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mlx-4bitmlx | 1.3 GB | 2.4 GB | 3.5 GB | 5.0 GB | 8.0 GB |
| Q4_K_Mgguf | 1.5 GB | 2.6 GB | 3.7 GB | 5.2 GB | 8.2 GB |
| Q5_K_Mgguf | 1.8 GB | 2.9 GB | 4.0 GB | 5.5 GB | 8.5 GB |
| Q6_Kgguf | 2.0 GB | 3.0 GB | 4.2 GB | 5.7 GB | 8.7 GB |
| mlx-8bitmlx | 2.5 GB | 3.6 GB | 4.7 GB | 6.2 GB | 9.2 GB |
| Q8_0gguf | 2.5 GB | 3.6 GB | 4.7 GB | 6.2 GB | 9.2 GB |
Run it
Copy a command for the runtime you use.
- mlx-4bit
- LM Studio
lms get mlx-community/MiniCPM5-2B-mlx-4Bit - MLX
mlx_lm.server --model mlx-community/MiniCPM5-2B-mlx-4Bit
- LM Studio
- Q4_K_M
- Ollama
ollama run hf.co/bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q4_K_M - LM Studio
lms get bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF@q4_k_m - llama.cpp
llama-server -hf bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q4_K_M
- Ollama
- Q5_K_M
- Ollama
ollama run hf.co/bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q5_K_M - LM Studio
lms get bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF@q5_k_m - llama.cpp
llama-server -hf bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q5_K_M
- Ollama
- Q6_K
- Ollama
ollama run hf.co/bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q6_K - LM Studio
lms get bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF@q6_k - llama.cpp
llama-server -hf bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q6_K
- Ollama
- mlx-8bit
- LM Studio
lms get mlx-community/MiniCPM5-2B-8bit - MLX
mlx_lm.server --model mlx-community/MiniCPM5-2B-8bit
- LM Studio
- Q8_0
- Ollama
ollama run hf.co/bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q8_0 - LM Studio
lms get bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF@q8_0 - llama.cpp
llama-server -hf bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q8_0
- Ollama
Notes
Dense dual-language (en/zh) 2B model with standard LlamaForCausalLM architecture, aimed at on-device use. This is the final RL+OPD post-trained BF16 release; GGUF, MLX and GPTQ variants are separate repos.
Questions
- How much VRAM does MiniCPM5 2B need?
- At mlx-4bit, MiniCPM5 2B needs about 2 GB of memory at 8k context and 5 GB at 64k, counting the weights, the KV cache and runtime buffers.
- What is the best GPU for running MiniCPM5 2B locally?
- The cheapest hardware in the UK that runs MiniCPM5 2B fully in memory at 64k context is the NVIDIA Tesla P40, £261 at eBay, at about 39 tok/s (estimated). The best value is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB (about 86 tok/s for £466). The fastest we price is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, at about 202 tok/s.
- Can I run MiniCPM5 2B on a 16 GB GPU?
- Yes: at Q8_0 it fits fully in 16 GB at 64k context. On the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 it runs at about 108 tok/s (estimated).
- Can I run MiniCPM5 2B on a 24 GB GPU?
- Yes: at Q8_0 it fits fully in 24 GB at 64k context. On the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti it runs at about 114 tok/s (estimated).
- How do I run MiniCPM5 2B locally?
- With Ollama: ollama run hf.co/bartowski/MiniCPM5-2B-GGUF:Q4_K_M (the Q4_K_M build). LM Studio and llama.cpp commands are on this page.
- What licence is MiniCPM5 2B released under?
- Apache License 2.0, which allows commercial use.