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Compare any two local AI models

Pick any two open-weight models. Get a 10-dimension matrix + a hardware-fit table showing where each one runs across 8 common GPU tiers — 12 GB consumer cards to 192 GB Mac Studio M3 Ultra.

PICK ANY TWO MODELS
★ EDITORIAL PAGE EXISTS FOR THIS PAIR
DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B — frontier vs local-capable reasoning

Hand-written editorial verdict, multi-paragraph framing, 3 FAQ entries, hardware-tier decision rule. Stricter depth than what the comparator alone produces.

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Live · DB-driven2 min read
TL;DR

For reasoning: roughly tied on the weighted score (5% vs 5%). Hardware fit varies by tier — check the matrix.

MODEL · A
DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)
PARAMS: 671BCTX: 128KFAMILY: deepseekLICENSE: commercial OK
MODEL · B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
PARAMS: 32BCTX: 128KFAMILY: deepseekLICENSE: commercial OK

Verdict for reasoning

Weighted: 5% (DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)) vs 5% (DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B)

Neither model is the clear better fit for reasoning. They split the 10 dimensions roughly evenly (1 for DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning), 1 for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B, 8 ties). The pick is contextual — check the per-row notes, and remember that "better for this use case" isn't "better overall."

WILL IT RUN — HARDWARE FIT

For each common hardware tier, the best-fitting quant for each model + predicted decode tok/s. ✓ comfortable, ~ tight, ✗ doesn't fit. tok/s extrapolated from bandwidth × active-footprint — measure on your stack.

Hardware tierDeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BVerdict
RTX 3060 12 GB
budget consumer · 360 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit✗ doesn't fitNeither
RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB
consumer 16 GB · 288 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit✗ doesn't fitNeither
RTX 3090 24 GB
used flagship · 936 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit
~ Q4_K_M~22 GB · 29 tok/s est.
Only B
RTX 4090 24 GB
consumer flagship · 1008 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit
~ Q4_K_M~22 GB · 31 tok/s est.
Only B
RTX 5090 32 GB
next-gen flagship · 1792 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit
✓ Q4_K_M~22 GB · 56 tok/s est.
Only B
RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96 GB
workstation · 1792 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit
✓ Q8_0~37 GB · 32 tok/s est.
Only B
Mac Studio M4 Max 128 GB
apple unified · 546 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit
✓ Q8_0~37 GB · 11 tok/s est.
Only B
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 192 GB
apple unified flagship · 800 GB/s
✗ doesn't fit
✓ Q8_0~37 GB · 16 tok/s est.
Only B
✓ Comfortable (≥30% headroom)~ Tight (fits, <30% headroom)✗ Doesn't fit
DIMENSION MATRIX
DimensionDeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BEdge
Editorial rating (1-10)
Editor rating — single human assessment across reasoning, fluency, tool-use, instruction-following.
9.08.8tie
Parameters (B)
671.0B32.0BDeepSeek
Context length (tokens)
131K131Ktie
License (commercial OK?)
✓ MIT✓ MITtie
Decode tok/s on chosen hardware
— pick hardware —— pick hardware —tie
Fits on chosen hardware (Q4_K_M)
— pick hardware —— pick hardware —tie
Cost to run (local, Q4)
Smaller model → less VRAM + less electricity per token. Cross-reference with /cost-vs-cloud for $-anchored math.
377.4 GB at Q4_K_M18.0 GB at Q4_K_MDeepSeek
Community popularity
Editorial popularity score — proxy for runtime support breadth + community recipe availability.
9589tie
Multimodal support
text onlytext onlytie
Released
2025-01-202025-01-20tie
DETAIL · A
DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning) →
Editorial verdict, how to run, hardware guidance.
DETAIL · B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B →
Editorial verdict, how to run, hardware guidance.
CURATED
Browse curated pairs →
9 head-to-head editorial pages for the highest-search-intent pairs.

Comparison data computed from live catalog rows + the model-battle comparator (src/lib/model-battle/comparator.ts) + the cross-tier fit calculator (src/lib/compare/model-hardware-fit.ts). All numbers are extrapolated from VRAM / bandwidth math; for measured runs see /benchmarks. The URL captures your selections — share it for the same view.