Will It Run AI

Can DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B run on RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?

YES — Runs Great

B70Good
Estimated from fit model

DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B needs ~9.6 GB VRAM. RTX 5060 Ti 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~61 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Balanced
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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) — 9.6 GB, 61.2 tok/s, Runs well
9.6 GB required16.0 GB available
60% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

61.2 tok/s

TTFT

3164 ms

Safe context

33K

Memory

9.6 GB / 16.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.9 GB
KV Cache2.0 GB
Runtime1.2 GB
Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsDeepSeek R1 Distill 8B on RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Solve: If a train travels at 60 mph for 2.5 hours, how far does it go?
Let me work through this step by step. Given information: - Speed = 60 mph (miles per hour) - Time = 2.5 hours Formula: Distance = Speed x Time Calculation: Distance = 60 mph x 2.5 h = 150 miles The train travels 150 miles. Double-check: at 60 mph the train covers 60 miles each hour. In half an hour it covers 30 miles. So in 2.5 hours: 60 + 60 + 30 = 150 miles. Confirmed.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>What if the train stops for 20 minutes halfway?
The stop doesn't change the total distance covered while moving, but it affects total trip time. Breakdown: - First half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles - Stop: 20 minutes (no distance) - Second half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles Total distance: 150 miles (same) Total time: 2.5 h + 0.33 h = 2.83 hours Average speed: 150 / 2.83 = 53 mph The distance stays the same but average speed drops to 53 mph because of the stop.
Estimated: 61.2 tok/s decode · 3.2s TTFT (warm) · 153 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

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatBRuns well61.2 tok/s1726 ms33K
CodingBRuns well61.2 tok/s3164 ms33K
Agentic CodingARuns well61.2 tok/s4602 ms33K
ReasoningBRuns well61.2 tok/s3739 ms33K
RAGARuns well61.2 tok/s5753 ms33K

Quantization options

How DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B (8B params) fits at each quantization level on RTX 5060 Ti 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
3.1 GB
LowB64
Q3_K_S
3
3.9 GB
LowB64
NVFP4
4
4.5 GB
MediumB65
Q4_K_M
4
4.9 GB
MediumB65
Q5_K_M
5
5.8 GB
HighB66
Q6_K
6
6.6 GB
HighB67
Q8_0Best for your GPU
8
8.6 GB
Very HighB68
F16
16
16.4 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B on your machine.

Run

ollama run deepseek-r1:8b

Frequently asked questions

Can RTX 5060 Ti 16GB run DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B?

Yes, RTX 5060 Ti 16GB can run DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 61.2 tok/s.

How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B need?

DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 9.6 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B?

The recommended quantization for DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B run at on RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?

On RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B achieves approximately 61.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3164ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can RTX 5060 Ti 16GB run DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B for coding?

For coding workloads, DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B on RTX 5060 Ti 16GB receives a B grade with 61.2 tok/s and 33K context.

What context window can DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B use on RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?

On RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B 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 5060 Ti 16GBSee all hardware for DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B
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