Your rig
GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB · 12 GB
32 GB system RAM · Ampere · 360 GB/s · 10.6 GB usable VRAM
Which one should I actually run?
Best models for your GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB
What do you want to do? Each row is the best-ranked model on that use case's shortlist that fits at Q5_K_M and 32K. The ordering is editorial; the sizes and speeds are computed. How the shortlists work.
All
General assistantCodingReasoning & mathsWritingVisionAgents & tool useTranslationLow latencyLong context
| Recommendation | Model | Why | Quant · total | Tok/s est. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall | Qwen3.5 9B Alibaba · Apache 2.0 |
The 8–12 GB default of 2026 — beats every older 8B, with vision. | Q5_K_M · 8.0 GB | 34 | Runs great |
| Best for coding | Qwen3.5 9B Alibaba · Apache 2.0 |
The best coding model for 8–12 GB cards. | Q5_K_M · 8.0 GB | 34 | Runs great |
| Best reasoning | Qwen3.5 9B Alibaba · Apache 2.0 |
Thinking mode on a 12 GB card — ahead of the 2025 R1 distills. | Q5_K_M · 8.0 GB | 34 | Runs great |
| Best for writing | Gemma 4 E4B Google · Apache 2.0 |
Readable prose on a laptop. | Q5_K_M · 6.4 GB | 41 | Runs great |
| Best vision | Qwen3.5 9B Alibaba · Apache 2.0 |
Vision on an 8–12 GB card. | Q5_K_M · 8.0 GB | 34 | Runs great |
| Best for agents | Fara 7B Microsoft · MIT |
Web computer-use only — clicks and fills forms from screenshots, and stops to ask before anything irreversible. | Q5_K_M · 7.8 GB | 40 | Runs great |
| Best translation | Qwen3.5 9B Alibaba · Apache 2.0 |
Strong CJK and European translation in 8–12 GB. | Q5_K_M · 8.0 GB | 34 | Runs great |
| Fastest good model | LFM2.5 8B-A1B Liquid AI · LFM Open License v1.0 |
1.5B active; designed for laptops without a GPU. | Q5_K_M · 6.6 GB | 85 | Runs great |
| Best long context | Qwen3.5 4B Alibaba · Apache 2.0 |
262K on 8 GB. | Q5_K_M · 7.7 GB at 128K context |
71 | Runs great |
Everything that fits
Runs great
23 of 76 · fits with headroom for a longer prompt| Model | Params | Quant | Weights | +KV 32K | Total | VRAM headroom | Tok/s | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.5 9B | 9.65B | Q5_K_M | 6.4 GB | 1.00 GB | 8.0 GB |
2.6 GB free
|
34 | Ollama | Run |
| Ornith 1.5 9B New this week | 9.41B | Q5_K_M | 6.2 GB | 1.00 GB | 7.8 GB |
2.8 GB free
|
35 | Ollama | Run |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | 8.47B MoE / 1.5B act | Q5_K_M | 5.6 GB | 0.38 GB | 6.6 GB |
4.0 GB free
|
85 | Ollama | Run |
| Fara 7B | 8.29B | Q5_K_M | 5.5 GB | 1.75 GB | 7.8 GB |
2.8 GB free
|
40 | llama.cpp | Run |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 8.0B | Q5_K_M | 5.3 GB | 0.47 GB | 6.4 GB |
4.2 GB free
|
41 | Ollama | Run |
| Ling 3.0 Tiny 7.9B-A1.3B New | 7.9B MoE / 1.3B act | Q5_K_M | 5.2 GB | 0.21 GB | 6.0 GB |
4.6 GB free
|
98 | llama.cpp | Run |
| DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen 7B | 7.62B | Q5_K_M | 5.0 GB | 1.75 GB | 7.4 GB |
3.2 GB free
|
43 | Ollama | Run |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 7B | 7.62B | Q5_K_M | 5.0 GB | 1.75 GB | 7.4 GB |
3.2 GB free
|
43 | Ollama | Run |
| Gemma 4 E2B | 5.1B | Q5_K_M | 3.4 GB | 0.23 GB | 4.2 GB |
6.4 GB free
|
65 | Ollama | Run |
| Qwen3.5 4B | 4.66B | Q5_K_M | 3.1 GB | 1.00 GB | 4.7 GB |
5.9 GB free
|
71 | Ollama | Run |
| Gemma 3 4B | 4.3B | Q5_K_M | 2.8 GB | 0.86 GB | 4.3 GB |
6.3 GB free
|
77 | Ollama | Run |
| Qwen3 4B | 4.02B | Q5_K_M | 2.7 GB | 4.50 GB | 7.8 GB |
2.8 GB free
|
82 | Ollama | Run |
| Ministral 3 3B | 3.85B | Q5_K_M | 2.5 GB | 3.25 GB | 6.4 GB |
4.2 GB free
|
86 | Ollama | Run |
| Phi-4-mini 3.8B | 3.84B | Q5_K_M | 2.5 GB | 4.00 GB | 7.1 GB |
3.5 GB free
|
86 | Ollama | Run |
| Granite 4.1 3B | 3.4B | Q5_K_M | 2.2 GB | 2.50 GB | 5.3 GB |
5.3 GB free
|
97 | Ollama | Run |
| Llama 3.2 3B Instruct | 3.21B | Q5_K_M | 2.1 GB | 3.50 GB | 6.2 GB |
4.4 GB free
|
103 | Ollama | Run |
| LFM2.5 2.6B New | 2.7B | Q5_K_M | 1.8 GB | 0.50 GB | 2.9 GB |
7.7 GB free
|
122 | llama.cpp | Run |
| Qwen3.5 2B | 2.27B | Q5_K_M | 1.5 GB | 0.38 GB | 2.5 GB |
8.1 GB free
|
145 | Ollama | Run |
| Qwen3 1.7B | 1.72B | Q5_K_M | 1.1 GB | 3.50 GB | 5.2 GB |
5.4 GB free
|
192 | Ollama | Run |
| Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | 1.24B | Q5_K_M | 0.8 GB | 1.00 GB | 2.4 GB |
8.2 GB free
|
266 | Ollama | Run |
| Gemma 3 1B | 1.0B | Q5_K_M | 0.7 GB | 0.14 GB | 1.4 GB |
9.2 GB free
|
330 | Ollama | Run |
| Qwen3.5 0.8B | 0.87B | Q5_K_M | 0.6 GB | 0.38 GB | 1.5 GB |
9.1 GB free
|
379 | Ollama | Run |
| Qwen3 0.6B | 0.6B | Q5_K_M | 0.4 GB | 3.50 GB | 4.5 GB |
6.1 GB free
|
550 | Ollama | Run |
Runs — tight
3 models · fits at 32K, drop context or quant to go longer| Model | Params | Quant | Weights | +KV 32K | Total | VRAM headroom | Tok/s | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 8B | 8.19B | Q5_K_M | 5.4 GB | 4.50 GB | 10.5 GB |
0.1 GB free
|
40 | llama.cpp | Run |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | 8.03B | Q5_K_M | 5.3 GB | 4.00 GB | 9.9 GB |
0.7 GB free
|
41 | llama.cpp | Run |
| Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 | 7.25B | Q5_K_M | 4.8 GB | 4.00 GB | 9.4 GB |
1.2 GB free
|
46 | llama.cpp | Run |
Won't fit in VRAM
50 models · some are possible with CPU offload| Model | Params | Quant | Weights | +KV 32K | Total | Over budget | Tok/s | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | 35.9B MoE / 3.3B act | Q5_K_M | 23.7 GB | 0.63 GB | 24.9 GB | +14.3 GB | ~9.6 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Ornith 1.5 35B-A3B New this week | 35.9B MoE / 3.3B act | Q5_K_M | 23.7 GB | 0.63 GB | 24.9 GB | +14.3 GB | ~9.6 | llama.cpp | Why |
| LLM-jp 4 33B Thinking New this week | 33.2B | Q5_K_M | 21.9 GB | 8.00 GB | 30.5 GB | +19.9 GB | ~1.8 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3 32B | 32.8B | Q5_K_M | 21.7 GB | 8.00 GB | 30.3 GB | +19.7 GB | ~1.8 | llama.cpp | Why |
| DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen 32B | 32.8B | Q5_K_M | 21.7 GB | 8.00 GB | 30.3 GB | +19.7 GB | ~1.8 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 32B | 32.8B | Q5_K_M | 21.7 GB | 8.00 GB | 30.3 GB | +19.7 GB | ~1.8 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Olmo 3.1 32B Instruct | 32.2B | Q5_K_M | 21.3 GB | 2.75 GB | 24.6 GB | +14.0 GB | ~2.4 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B New | 31.6B MoE / 3.2B act | Q5_K_M | 20.9 GB | 0.19 GB | 21.6 GB | +11.0 GB | ~11 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Gemma 4 31B | 31.3B | Q5_K_M | 20.7 GB | 5.78 GB | 27.0 GB | +16.4 GB | ~2.1 | llama.cpp | Why |
| GLM-4.7-Flash 30B-A3B | 31.2B MoE / 3B act | Q5_K_M | 20.6 GB | 1.65 GB | 22.8 GB | +12.2 GB | ~11 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3 30B-A3B | 30.5B MoE / 3.3B act | Q5_K_M | 20.1 GB | 3.00 GB | 23.7 GB | +13.1 GB | ~9.0 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B | 30.5B MoE / 3.3B act | Q5_K_M | 20.1 GB | 3.00 GB | 23.7 GB | +13.1 GB | ~9.0 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Muse Glimmer 30B New | 29.8B | Q5_K_M | 19.7 GB | 0.48 GB | 20.8 GB | +10.2 GB | ~3.1 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Granite 4.1 30B | 28.9B | Q5_K_M | 19.1 GB | 8.00 GB | 27.7 GB | +17.1 GB | ~2.1 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3.8 27B New this week | 27.8B | Q5_K_M | 18.4 GB | 2.00 GB | 21.0 GB | +10.4 GB | ~3.1 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3.6 27B | 27.8B | Q5_K_M | 18.4 GB | 2.00 GB | 21.0 GB | +10.4 GB | ~3.1 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Gemma 3 27B | 27.4B | Q5_K_M | 18.1 GB | 2.91 GB | 21.6 GB | +11.0 GB | ~3.0 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | 26.5B MoE / 3.8B act | Q5_K_M | 17.5 GB | 1.45 GB | 19.5 GB | +8.9 GB | ~9.4 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Devstral Small 2 24B | 24B | Q5_K_M | 15.8 GB | 5.00 GB | 21.4 GB | +10.8 GB | ~3.1 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | 23.6B | Q5_K_M | 15.6 GB | 5.00 GB | 21.2 GB | +10.6 GB | ~3.2 | llama.cpp | Why |
| gpt-oss 20B | 20.9B MoE / 3.6B act | MXFP4 | 10.8 GB | 0.75 GB | 12.2 GB | +1.6 GB | ~26 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3 14B | 14.8B | Q5_K_M | 9.8 GB | 5.00 GB | 15.4 GB | +4.8 GB | ~6.5 | llama.cpp | Why |
| DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen 14B | 14.8B | Q5_K_M | 9.8 GB | 6.00 GB | 16.4 GB | +5.8 GB | ~5.6 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B | 14.8B | Q5_K_M | 9.8 GB | 6.00 GB | 16.4 GB | +5.8 GB | ~5.6 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Phi-4 14B | 14.7B | Q5_K_M | 9.7 GB | 3.13 GB | 13.4 GB | +2.8 GB | ~9.1 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Ministral 3 14B | 13.9B | Q5_K_M | 9.2 GB | 5.00 GB | 14.8 GB | +4.2 GB | ~7.3 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Gemma 3 12B | 12.2B | Q5_K_M | 8.1 GB | 2.31 GB | 11.0 GB | +0.4 GB | ~22 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Mistral NeMo 12B | 12.2B | Q5_K_M | 8.1 GB | 5.00 GB | 13.7 GB | +3.1 GB | ~9.3 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Gemma 4 12B | 12B | Q5_K_M | 7.9 GB | 2.31 GB | 10.8 GB | +0.2 GB | ~24 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Ministral 3 8B | 8.92B | Q5_K_M | 5.9 GB | 4.25 GB | 10.7 GB | +0.1 GB | ~33 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Granite 4.1 8B | 8.79B | Q5_K_M | 5.8 GB | 5.00 GB | 11.4 GB | +0.8 GB | ~22 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Olmo 3 7B Instruct | 7.3B | Q5_K_M | 4.8 GB | 5.50 GB | 10.9 GB | +0.3 GB | ~34 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Kimi K3 2.8T-A104B New | 2780B MoE / 104B act | Q5_K_M | 1835.0 GB | 0.84 GB | 1836.5 GB | +1825.9 GB | ~0.2 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3.8 2.4T-A95B New | 2446B MoE / 95B act | Q5_K_M | 1614.5 GB | 2.88 GB | 1618.0 GB | +1607.4 GB | ~0.2 | llama.cpp | Why |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 1.6T-A49B New | 1650B MoE / 49B act | Q5_K_M | 1089.1 GB | 2.14 GB | 1091.9 GB | +1081.3 GB | ~0.4 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Kimi K2.6 1T-A32B | 1027B MoE / 32B act | Q5_K_M | 677.9 GB | 2.14 GB | 680.6 GB | +670.0 GB | ~0.7 | llama.cpp | Why |
| GLM-5.2 744B-A40B | 753B MoE / 40B act | Q5_K_M | 497.0 GB | 2.74 GB | 500.4 GB | +489.8 GB | ~0.5 | llama.cpp | Why |
| DeepSeek-R1 671B | 671B MoE / 37B act | Q5_K_M | 442.9 GB | 2.14 GB | 445.7 GB | +435.1 GB | ~0.6 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3.5 397B-A17B | 403B MoE / 17B act | Q5_K_M | 266.0 GB | 0.94 GB | 267.5 GB | +256.9 GB | ~1.3 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Ornith 1.5 397B-A17B New this week | 397B MoE / 17B act | Q5_K_M | 262.0 GB | 0.94 GB | 263.6 GB | +253.0 GB | ~1.3 | llama.cpp | Why |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B-A13B New | 284B MoE / 13B act | Q5_K_M | 187.5 GB | 1.51 GB | 189.6 GB | +179.0 GB | ~1.7 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3 235B-A22B | 235B MoE / 22B act | Q5_K_M | 155.1 GB | 5.88 GB | 161.6 GB | +151.0 GB | ~1.0 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10B | 125B MoE / 10B act | Q5_K_M | 82.5 GB | 0.75 GB | 83.9 GB | +73.3 GB | ~2.3 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B | 124B MoE / 12B act | Q5_K_M | 81.8 GB | 0.25 GB | 82.7 GB | +72.1 GB | ~2.0 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Ling 3.0 Flash 124B-A5B New | 124B MoE / 5.1B act | Q5_K_M | 81.8 GB | 0.25 GB | 82.7 GB | +72.1 GB | ~4.6 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Mistral Small 4 119B-A6B | 119B MoE / 6.5B act | Q5_K_M | 78.5 GB | 0.70 GB | 79.9 GB | +69.3 GB | ~3.6 | llama.cpp | Why |
| gpt-oss 120B | 117B MoE / 5.1B act | MXFP4 | 60.5 GB | 1.13 GB | 62.2 GB | +51.6 GB | ~6.0 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Llama 4 Scout 109B-A17B | 109B MoE / 17B act | Q5_K_M | 71.9 GB | 2.63 GB | 75.2 GB | +64.6 GB | ~1.4 | llama.cpp | Why |
| Llama 3.3 70B Instruct | 70.6B | Q5_K_M | 46.6 GB | 10.00 GB | 57.2 GB | +46.6 GB | ~0.8 | llama.cpp | Why |
| DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama 70B | 70.6B | Q5_K_M | 46.6 GB | 10.00 GB | 57.2 GB | +46.6 GB | ~0.8 | llama.cpp | Why |
Totals = quantised weights + f16 KV cache at 32K tokens + 0.6 GB runtime overhead, against 10.6 GB usable VRAM (12 GB less display and driver reserve). Tokens per second are estimated from 360 GB/s peak memory bandwidth at batch 1 — not measured. Read the method.