RUNLOCALAIv38
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RUNLOCALAI · v38
Will it run? / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB / chat

What can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB run for chat?

Build: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB + — + 32 GB RAM (windows)

Memory: 12 GB VRAM + 32 GB system RAM
Runner: llama.cpp / Ollama (CUDA)
AnyChatCodingAgentsReasoningVisionLong contextCreative

Runs comfortably
78 models

Ranked by fit for chat use case + predicted speed. Click a row for VRAM breakdown.

#1Qwen 3 0.6B
0.6B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 2.5 GBHeadroom: 9.5 GBTTFT: fast
646
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
0.36 GB
KV cache
0.30 GB
Activations
0.03 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~121 ms (fast)
Model details →
#2TinyLlama 1.1B Chat v1.0
1.1B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 2.6 GBHeadroom: 9.4 GBTTFT: fast
352
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
0.66 GB
KV cache
0.14 GB
Activations
0.04 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~222 ms (fast)
Model details →
#3TinyLlama 1.1B Chat v0.3 AWQ
1.1B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 2.6 GBHeadroom: 9.4 GBTTFT: fast
352
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
0.66 GB
KV cache
0.14 GB
Activations
0.04 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~222 ms (fast)
Model details →
#4TinyLlama 1.1B Chat v0.3 GPTQ
1.1B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 2.6 GBHeadroom: 9.4 GBTTFT: fast
352
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
0.66 GB
KV cache
0.14 GB
Activations
0.04 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~222 ms (fast)
Model details →
#5Qwen 3 1.7B
1.7B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 3.7 GBHeadroom: 8.3 GBTTFT: fast
228
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.03 GB
KV cache
0.85 GB
Activations
0.06 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~343 ms (fast)
Model details →
#6Gemma 2 2B Instruct
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.1 GBHeadroom: 7.9 GBTTFT: fast
194
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.21 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.07 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~403 ms (fast)
Model details →
#7Kumru 2B
2.4B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.5 GBHeadroom: 7.5 GBTTFT: fast
ollama run alibayram/kumru:latest
161
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.45 GB
KV cache
1.20 GB
Activations
0.08 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~484 ms (fast)
Model details →
#8EXAONE 3.5 2.4B Instruct
2.4B
exaone
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.5 GBHeadroom: 7.5 GBTTFT: fast
161
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.45 GB
KV cache
1.20 GB
Activations
0.08 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~484 ms (fast)
Model details →
#9Qwen3 0.6B Hindi Instruct v1 GGUF
0.6B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 2.3 GBHeadroom: 9.7 GBTTFT: fast
646
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
0.36 GB
KV cache
0.07 GB
Activations
0.02 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~121 ms (fast)
Model details →
#10Salamandra 2B Instruct
2B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.1 GBHeadroom: 7.9 GBTTFT: fast
194
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.21 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.07 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~403 ms (fast)
Model details →
#11Falcon 3 3B Instruct
3B
falcon
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 5.2 GBHeadroom: 6.8 GBTTFT: noticeable
129
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~605 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
#12Hermes 3 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 5.2 GBHeadroom: 6.8 GBTTFT: noticeable
129
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~605 ms (noticeable)
Model details →

Runs with tradeoffs
146 models

Tight VRAM, partial CPU offload, or context-limited.

DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat
15.7B
deepseek
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 19.6 GBHeadroom: 11.6 GBTTFT: fast
  • • Partial CPU offload: ~39% of layers run on CPU
161
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
9.48 GB
KV cache
7.85 GB
Activations
0.48 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~484 ms (fast)
Model details →
Mistral Turkish v2 (brooqs)
7.2B
mistral
Quant: Q4_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 2.3 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.3 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run brooqs/mistral-turkish-v2:latest
58
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.05 GB
KV cache
3.60 GB
Activations
0.21 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1451 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
Salamandra 7B Instruct
7B
llama
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 2.3 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.3 GB headroom left for context growth
55
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1411 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2
7B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 2.3 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.3 GB headroom left for context growth
55
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1411 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
Mistral 7B OpenOrca GGUF
7B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 2.3 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.3 GB headroom left for context growth
55
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1411 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
OpenThaiGPT 1.5 7B Instruct
7B
other
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 2.3 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.3 GB headroom left for context growth
55
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1411 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
Falcon 3 7B Instruct
7B
falcon
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 2.3 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.3 GB headroom left for context growth
55
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1411 ms (noticeable)
Model details →
InternLM 2.5 7B Chat
7B
internlm
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.7 GBHeadroom: 2.3 GBTTFT: noticeable
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.3 GB headroom left for context growth
55
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
1.80 GB
Time to first token (prefill, 512-token prompt): ~1411 ms (noticeable)
Model details →

What if you upgraded?

Hypothetical scenarios. We re-ran the compatibility engine for each.

+32 GB system RAM

~$80–150

Doubles your CPU-offload working set. Helps when models don't quite fit in VRAM.

Unlocks: 25 new comfortable, 158 new tradeoff

  • • all-MiniLM-L6-v2
  • • Piper
  • • Whisper Tiny
  • • Whisper Base
Shop this upgrade↗

Upgrade to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super

~$829

16 GB VRAM (vs your 12 GB) plus a bandwidth jump from ~360 GB/s to ~672 GB/s.

Unlocks: 94 new comfortable

  • • all-MiniLM-L6-v2
  • • Piper
  • • Whisper Tiny
  • • Whisper Base
Shop this upgrade↗

Add a second NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

~$249

Tensor parallelism splits the model across both cards, effectively doubling VRAM. Bandwidth doesn't double — runs ~1.5× the single-card speed in practice.

Unlocks: 130 new comfortable

  • • all-MiniLM-L6-v2
  • • Piper
  • • Whisper Tiny
  • • Whisper Base
Shop this upgrade↗

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Won't run
top 5 popular models

Need more memory than you have. Shown for orientation.

DeepSeek V4 Pro (1.6T MoE)
1600B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (12 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
Qwen 3.5 235B-A17B (MoE)
397B
qwen
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (12 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
Qwen 3 235B-A22B
235B
qwen
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (12 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)
671B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (12 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—
DeepSeek V4 Flash (284B MoE)
284B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Even with CPU offload, needs more memory than your VRAM (12 GB) + 60% of system RAM (19 GB) combined.

—

How to read these numbers

Measured here
Measured here - RunLocalAI ran this exact combo on owner hardware with public evidence.

Source-backed
Source-backed / community - a reproduced public source supports the speed, but it is not labeled as owner-measured.

Extrapolated
Extrapolated - predicted from a measured benchmark on similar-bandwidth hardware.

Estimated
Estimated - formula based on VRAM bandwidth and model architecture; not a benchmark row.

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