DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B needs ~27.0 GB VRAM. RTX 3090 24GB has 24.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~21 tok/s.
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
3.0 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Very compromised (needs ~2.2 GB host RAM)
Decode
21.2 tok/s
TTFT
9143 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
27.0 GB / 24.0 GB
Offload
10%
It fits through host-memory offload, and offload is the main reason performance drops.
CPU or host-memory offload is active
About 10% of the working set spills out of accelerator memory, which usually hurts latency and sustained decode throughput.
Very little memory headroom
You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.
Remove offload with more accelerator memory
Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.
Buy headroom, not only minimum fit
A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.
Increase host RAM if you keep offloading
This setup may need roughly 2.2 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | A | Runs with offload (needs ~0.8 GB host RAM) | 24.8 tok/s | 4259 ms | 4K |
| Coding | B | Very compromised (needs ~2.2 GB host RAM) | 21.2 tok/s | 9143 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 15.9 tok/s | 17670 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | B | Very compromised (needs ~2.2 GB host RAM) | 21.2 tok/s | 10805 ms | 4K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 15.9 tok/s | 22087 ms |
How DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B (32B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3090 24GB (24.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 12.5 GB | Low | A76 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 15.7 GB | Low | A75 |
NVFP4Best for your GPU |
Copy-paste commands to run DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B on your machine.
Run
ollama run deepseek-r1:32bUpgrade options
RTX 5090 32GBBudget pickRemoves host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
Raises estimated decode speed by about 213%.
~$1,999 MSRP
RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 32GBBest valueRemoves host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
Raises estimated decode speed by about 96%.
~$2,499 MSRP
RTX 5000 Ada 32GBNVIDIA upgradeRemoves host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$4,000 MSRP
Yes, RTX 3090 24GB can run DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B with a B grade (Very compromised (needs ~2.2 GB host RAM)). Expected decode speed: 21.2 tok/s.
DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B (32B parameters) requires approximately 27.0 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 3090 24GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B achieves approximately 21.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 9143ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B on RTX 3090 24GB receives a B grade with 21.2 tok/s and 4K context.
On RTX 3090 24GB, 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-3090-24gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
| 4K |
| 4 |
17.9 GB |
| Medium |
| A75 |
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 |
Remove offload with more accelerator memory. Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.