Can DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B run on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB?

YES — Runs Great

A71Great

Estimated from fit model

DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B needs ~7.5 GB VRAM. RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB has 12.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~62 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Balanced

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

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.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 7.5 GB, 62.4 tok/s, Runs well

7.5 GB required12.0 GB available

63% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

62.4 tok/s

TTFT

3104 ms

Safe context

33K

Memory

7.5 GB / 12.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.3 GB

KV Cache0.9 GB

Runtime1.2 GB

Headroom1.2 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsDeepSeek R1 Distill 7B on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort:

def quicksort(arr):
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

# Example usage
numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]
print(quicksort(numbers))  # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10]

The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm.

    Args:
        arr: List of integers to sort.

    Returns:
        A new sorted list.
    """
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 62.4 tok/s decode · 3.1s TTFT (warm) · 156 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

No major red flags

This recommendation has enough memory headroom and acceptable estimated speed for the selected workload.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	A	Runs well	62.4 tok/s	1693 ms	33K
Coding	A	Runs well	62.4 tok/s	3104 ms	33K
Agentic Coding	A	Runs well	62.4 tok/s	4515 ms	33K
Reasoning	A	Runs well	62.4 tok/s	3669 ms	33K
RAG	A	Runs well	62.4 tok/s	5644 ms	33K

Quantization options

How DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B (7B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB (12.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	2.7 GB	Low	B66
Q3_K_S	3	3.4 GB	Low	B67
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B on your machine.

Run

ollama run deepseek-r1:7b

Your hardware

More models your RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode	Capabilities
Qwen 3.5 9B	9B	S	48 tok/s
Qwen 3 14B	14B	A	18.5 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB run DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B?

Yes, RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB can run DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 62.4 tok/s.

How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B need?

DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B (7B parameters) requires approximately 7.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B?

The recommended quantization for DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B run at on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB?

On RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B achieves approximately 62.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3104ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB run DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B for coding?

For coding workloads, DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB receives a A grade with 62.4 tok/s and 33K context.

What context window can DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B use on RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB?

On RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B can safely use up to 33K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 33K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for RTX 3500 Ada Laptop 12GB See all hardware for DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B

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