Can I run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on an RTX 3060 12GB?
Key facts
No: it needs about 11.4 GB, and only about 11.4 GB of this card's 12 GB is free for a model.
It needs about 11.4 GB at standard quality (estimate). Checked . unsloth Q4_K_M GGUF.
Tip: a slightly smaller version (IQ4_XS, a file of about 8.1 GB) does fit on this card. It answers a little less well than the standard version.
In a PC with enough normal memory it still runs, part of it from normal memory: Budget PC with RTX 3060 12GB, about $1,310€1,361 (with a used graphics card). Fast~26 tok/s
How much memory it needs
That is about 1.0 times what this card has free.
Get a 1-line alert when a faster quant for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B drops — or when GPUs that run it drop >10%
Get a 1-line alert when a new open-weight model fits 16 GB VRAM (11.4 GB at Q4 for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B) or when used RTX 3090 / 4090 & Mac Studio prices drop >10% — weekly, zero spam.
What runs DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B instead
The cheapest graphics card on our list that holds the whole model (it still needs the rest of a PC):
Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB$522€564new (cheapest in-stock board on GPU PRIX's German board list)
Fast~23 tok/sAnswers appear faster than you can read them.EU shops · Shown to visitors in Europe.US shops · Shown to visitors outside Europe.
We never pass off an estimate as a benchmark. Commissions never change which hardware we recommend. How we calculate
Price details
$522€564
How we priced this
New (cheapest in-stock board on GPU PRIX's German board list).
Source: GPU PRIX, checked 17 Oct 2026.
An ASUS Prime at €563.90. A lower Amazon.de offer, an XFX Swift at €474.78, was also listed as in stock, but not on that board list; we did not use it.
Prices excl. shipping unless marked. Euro prices incl. VAT where the seller charges it. Dollar prices are converted from our euro prices without the 21% EU VAT, before US sales tax.
A complete machine that runs it at least as fast as you read: Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB, about $2,116€1,890 (used). Comfortable~18.5 tok/s
See our picks for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B in Find hardware. Add your budget to see cheaper machines.
For comparison, an RTX 3060 12GB costs $292€261, used (median of sold listings). Card details
If you buy through these links we may earn a commission. It doesn't change our ranking. How shop links work
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Als Amazon-Partner verdiene ich an qualifizierten Verkäufen.
Als Amazon-Partner verdien ik aan in aanmerking komende aankopen.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on other graphics cards
Runs well9
The whole model fits in the graphics memory.
Doesn't fit1
Not enough graphics memory: it needs about 11.4 GB.
- RTX 3060 12GBhas 12 GB
More about the model itself, what it is good at and its licence: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B.
The numbers behind this answer
A model comes in several sizes. Q4 is the standard one most people use; the bigger ones answer a little better but need more memory. Each row adds up the model file, the memory a conversation takes, and some working space, and compares the total with what is free on this card.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Quality | Conversation | Result | Speed | Model file | Conversation memory | Working space | Total needed | Free memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 · standard (smallest that keeps quality) | ~12 pages8,192 tokens | Doesn't fit | — | 9.0 GBmeasured file | 1.6 GB | 0.8 GB | 11.4 GB | 11.4 GB |
| Q5 · a bit sharper, a bit bigger | ~12 pages8,192 tokens | Doesn't fit | — | 10.5 GB | 1.6 GB | 0.8 GB | 12.9 GB | 11.4 GB |
| Q8 · near full quality, almost twice Q4 | ~12 pages8,192 tokens | Doesn't fit | — | 15.8 GB | 1.6 GB | 0.8 GB | 18.2 GB | 11.4 GB |
| FP16 · full quality, over three times Q4 | ~12 pages8,192 tokens | Doesn't fit | — | 29.5 GB | 1.6 GB | 0.8 GB | 32.0 GB | 11.4 GB |
| Q4 · standard, longer conversation | ~49 pages32,768 tokens | Doesn't fit | — | 9.0 GBmeasured file | 6.4 GB | 0.8 GB | 16.2 GB | 11.4 GB |
Sources and method
Memory and speed on this page are our estimate, not a measured test. Checked . unsloth Q4_K_M GGUF.
DeepSeek's dense reasoning distill of DeepSeek-R1 onto Qwen2.5-14B, MIT licence. Hugging Face safetensors metadata lists 14,770,033,664 parameters (14.77B). 48 layers, 8 KV heads, head dim 128, context 131,072. The Q4_K_M GGUF is 8.99 GB (unsloth, 24 Oct 2026). At 8,192 tokens the rounded parts are 8.99 GB weights + 1.61 GB conversation memory + 0.80 GB working space = 11.40 GB, which equals the 11.4 GB usable line of a 12 GB card. The unrounded sum is a fraction over 11.4 GB, so the fit table does not mark Q4 as a full fit on 12 GB. IQ4_XS is an 8.12 GB file, about 10.53 GB in total at 8,192 tokens (our estimate), and that fits a 12 GB card. Only the 2-bit IQ2_XS file (4.70 GB, about 7.11 GB in total) fits an 8 GB card (about 7.4 GB usable). Ollama tag: deepseek-r1:14b.
Measured DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on an RTX 3060 12GB yourself? Send us your llama-bench result.
Questions
- Can I run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on an RTX 3060 12GB?
- No: it needs about 11.4 GB, and only about 11.4 GB of this card's 12 GB is free for a model. Tip: a slightly smaller version (IQ4_XS, a file of about 8.1 GB) does fit on this card. It answers a little less well than the standard version.
- How much memory does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B need?
- About 11.4 GB at the standard quality (Q4) for a conversation of up to about 12 pages of text (8,192 tokens), by our estimate: 9.0 GB for the model file (measured), 1.6 GB to hold the conversation and 0.8 GB of working space.
- How fast is DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on an RTX 3060 12GB?
- There is no speed to give: it doesn't fit on this card.
Speeds and memory are our estimate from the hardware specs, not a measured test. Prices are dated and may change. How we calculate