What GPU do I need to run facebook/sam3?
860M parameters, published in F32. View on Hugging FaceGated
Set up sam3sam3 is published by facebook on Hugging Face, with 2,241,669 downloads and 2,851 likes to date. It's a Sam3VideoModel model built for mask-generation, published natively in F32, and gated: you'll need to accept the model's terms on Hugging Face before downloading weights.
VRAM required & cheapest live GPU fit
Required VRAM = weight size at each precision times a flat 1.2 overhead for activations and fragmentation. The KV-cache grows with context and is not in that factor; it is listed per model below where the architecture is published. Full formula and assumptions: methodology.
| Precision | Weight size | Required VRAM | Cheapest live fit | GPUs needed | Est. $/hr (full fit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP32 | 3.2 GB | 3.8 GB | Quadro M4000 | 1 | $0.058/hr |
| FP8 (quantized) | 0.8 GB | 1.0 GB | RTX 4000 SFF Ada | 1 | $0.198/hr |
| INT4 (quantized) | 0.4 GB | 0.5 GB | RTX 3060 | 1 | $0.110/hr |
A GPU is only matched to a row if its hardware supports that precision, and the primary recommendation is always a single-GPU fit when one exists.
INT4 requires a quantized checkpoint actually published for this model, check its Hugging Face page before relying on this row.
Cheapest way to run sam3 at its published (F32) precision: 1× Quadro M4000, at $0.058/hr per GPU ($0.058/hr total). Quantizing to FP8 or INT4 (rows above) can cost less, but requires a compatible quantized checkpoint to exist for this model.
sam3: common questions
How much VRAM does sam3 need?
3.8 GB at FP32, 1.0 GB at FP8 (quantized), 0.5 GB at INT4 (quantized). All of those sit under 6 GB, the smallest capacity this page reasons about, so VRAM is not what limits where this model runs. The 3.2 GB of weights plus inference overhead is the whole requirement.
Do I need approval to download sam3?
Yes. facebook gates this repository on Hugging Face, so you have to accept its terms with a signed-in account before the weights will download. It does not change the 3.8 GB the model needs once you have them.
Can sam3 run in 16-bit instead of FP32?
Yes. Its published weights are FP32, 3.2 GB, or 3.8 GB once inference overhead is added. Loading the same weights in 16 bits halves that to 1.6 GB, or 1.9 GB with overhead. How much accuracy the cast costs is model-specific and is not measured here.
How many copies of sam3 fit on one Quadro M4000?
2, by VRAM alone. That card carries 8.0 GB and one copy needs 3.8 GB at FP32, on a live rate of $0.058/hr for the whole card. Throughput is not modelled here, so 2 copies is not 2 times the requests served.
Weight-to-VRAM math, the fit rules, and how live prices are normalized: full methodology.
More facebook models
- seamless-m4t-v2-large (2.3B, F32)
- dinov3-vitl16-pretrain-lvd1689m (303M, F32)
More on sam3
Fits on an 8 GB GPU at FP32: every model that fits in 8 GB.
Related reading: H100 pricing and specs, How much VRAM you need for LLMs, and What AI inference is.
