# AMD Radeon Instinct MI50 32GB for local LLMs

> Huge bandwidth per dollar on paper, but ROCm has dropped it and shortage pricing erased the bargain.

The MI50 32GB has 32GB of HBM2 and 1,024 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which decides how big a model fits and how fast it generates text. It comfortably runs models up to about 35B parameters: the largest in our catalog is Qwen3.6 35B-A3B at Q5_K_M (28GB with 8K context, ~76 tokens/sec). Our top all-round pick for it is Qwen3.8 27B (Q6_K, ~19 tokens/sec).

## Key specs

- Memory: 32GB HBM2
- Memory bandwidth: 1,024 GB/s
- Architecture: Vega 20 (GCN) (2018)
- Power: 300W
- Typical price: ~$600 used (checked 2026-10)
- Software: ROCm, Vulkan

## Best models for this GPU

- **Best overall (also coding, reasoning, vision):** Qwen3.8 27B at Q6_K, ~24.8GB with 8K context, ~19 tokens/sec
- **Runner-up (also fastest, largest that fits):** Qwen3.6 35B-A3B at Q5_K_M, ~27.7GB with 8K context, ~76 tokens/sec

## Compatibility (best quantization that fits, 8K context)

| Model | Params | Quant | Memory | Speed | Verdict |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 8B | Q8_0 | 10.5GB | ~44 tok/s | Runs well |
| Qwen3.5 9B | 9B | Q8_0 | 12.0GB | ~39 tok/s | Runs well |
| Phi-4 | 14.7B | Q8_0 | 18.3GB | ~28 tok/s | Runs well |
| gpt-oss-20b | 20.9B (3.6B active) | MXFP4 | 15.0GB | ~74 tok/s | Runs well |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B | 26B (3.8B active) | Q6_K | 23.2GB | ~61 tok/s | Runs well |
| Qwen3.8 27B | 27B | Q6_K | 24.8GB | ~19 tok/s | Runs well |
| Gemma 4 31B | 31B | Q5_K_M | 26.0GB | ~19 tok/s | Runs well |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | 35B (3B active) | Q5_K_M | 27.7GB | ~76 tok/s | Runs well |
| GLM-4.5-Air | 106B (12B active) | Q4_K_M | 68.3GB | ~9.2 tok/s | Partial offload |
| Llama 4 Scout | 109B (17B active) | Q4_K_M | 69.5GB | ~6.6 tok/s | Partial offload |
| gpt-oss-120b | 117B (5.1B active) | MXFP4 | 68.3GB | ~22 tok/s | Partial offload |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10B | 122B (10B active) | Q4_K_M | 77.0GB | ~10 tok/s | Partial offload |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 284B (13B active) | - | - | - | Won't fit |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | 320B (18B active) | - | - | - | Won't fit |
| GLM-5.3 | 744B (40B active) | - | - | - | Won't fit |

## Pros
- 1,024 GB/s HBM2 bandwidth
- 32GB per card
- Works with llama.cpp through Vulkan

## Cons
- Not supported by current ROCm releases
- Passive cooling needs a fan shroud
- Prices roughly quadrupled during the memory shortage

Full page: https://llamabuilds.ai/gpus/instinct-mi50-32gb · Best models: https://llamabuilds.ai/gpus/instinct-mi50-32gb/best-models

Sources: [VideoCardz.net Radeon Instinct MI50 32GB specifications](https://videocardz.net/amd-radeon-instinct-mi50-32gb), [Wikipedia, AMD Instinct](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Instinct)

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Source: https://llamabuilds.ai/gpus/instinct-mi50-32gb · Updated October 14, 2026 · Llama Builds. Speeds marked ~ are estimates from our bandwidth model (https://llamabuilds.ai/methodology); measured results are labeled as such.