DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B needs ~25.4 GB but RTX 3060 Ti 8GB only has 8.0 GB. Try a smaller quantization or lighter model.
Operating mode
Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
Select quantization to explore
17.4 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
2.5 tok/s
TTFT
76574 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
25.4 GB / 8.0 GB
Offload
70%
Usable VRAM is the main blocker for this model.
Not enough usable memory
The model needs 25.4 GB, but this setup only exposes 8.0 GB of usable VRAM.
Add more VRAM headroom
The first useful upgrade is more dedicated VRAM so you can fit the model without shrinking context or dropping to a much lower quant.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | F | Too heavy | 2.5 tok/s | 41768 ms | 4K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 2.5 tok/s | 76574 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 2.3 tok/s | 120291 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 2.5 tok/s | 90497 ms | 4K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 2.5 tok/s | 139226 ms | 4K |
How DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B (32B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3060 Ti 8GB (8.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 12.5 GB | Low | F0 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 15.7 GB | Low | F0 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Upgrade options
RTX 3090 24GBBest valueMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Raises estimated decode speed by about 748%.
~$1,499 MSRP
RTX 4090 24GBNVIDIA upgradeMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Raises estimated decode speed by about 892%.
~$1,599 MSRP
RTX 5090 32GBBudget pickMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$1,999 MSRP
No, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B requires more memory than RTX 3060 Ti 8GB provides.
DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B (32B parameters) requires approximately 25.4 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On RTX 3060 Ti 8GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B achieves approximately 2.5 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 76574ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B on RTX 3060 Ti 8GB receives a F grade with 2.5 tok/s and 4K context.
On RTX 3060 Ti 8GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 33K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/deepseek-r1-distill-32b-on-rtx-3060-ti-8gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
| Medium |
| F0 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 19.5 GB | Medium | F0 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 23.0 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 26.2 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 34.2 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 65.6 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Add more VRAM headroom. The first useful upgrade is more dedicated VRAM so you can fit the model without shrinking context or dropping to a much lower quant.
