Qwen 3 8B needs ~9.5 GB VRAM. RTX 3060 12GB has 12.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~52 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
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
52.3 tok/s
TTFT
3699 ms
Safe context
34K
Memory
9.5 GB / 12.0 GB
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.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | S | Runs well | 52.3 tok/s | 2018 ms | 34K |
| Coding | S | Runs well | 52.3 tok/s | 3699 ms | 34K |
| Agentic Coding | S | Runs with offload | 52.3 tok/s | 5380 ms | 34K |
| Reasoning | S | Runs well | 52.3 tok/s | 4371 ms | 34K |
| RAG | S | Runs with offload | 52.3 tok/s | 6725 ms | 34K |
How Qwen 3 8B (8B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 3060 12GB (12.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.1 GB | Low | S89 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.9 GB | Low | S90 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 4.5 GB | Medium | S91 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.9 GB | Medium | S92 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.8 GB | High | S92 |
Q6_K | 6 | 6.6 GB | High | S92 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 8.6 GB | Very High | S91 |
F16 | 16 | 16.4 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Copy-paste commands to run Qwen 3 8B on your machine.
Run
ollama run qwen3:8bYour hardware
| Model | Params | Grade | Decode | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Qwen 3.5 9B | 9B | S | 46.5 tok/s | |
| Qwen 3 14B | 14B | A | 17.9 tok/s |
Yes, RTX 3060 12GB can run Qwen 3 8B with a S grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 52.3 tok/s.
Qwen 3 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 9.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Qwen 3 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On RTX 3060 12GB, Qwen 3 8B achieves approximately 52.3 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3699ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Qwen 3 8B on RTX 3060 12GB receives a S grade with 52.3 tok/s and 34K context.
On RTX 3060 12GB, Qwen 3 8B can safely use up to 34K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, 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/qwen-3-8b-on-rtx-3060-12gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview: