Can the NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB run Qwen3 8B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB can run Qwen3 8B fully in VRAM at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 10.5 GB of the 12 GB available, at roughly 25 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen3 8B:
ollama run qwen3:8bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 6.8 GB here). You have room for Q8_0, which is near-lossless: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
New to this? Step-by-step setup for the RTX 3060 12GB
Run it in the cloud
No NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB? Run Qwen3 8B in the cloud.
Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.
Memory needed by quantization
At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 12 GB the NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB can use.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 18.2 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 10.5 GB | Fits | ~25 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 8.5 GB | Fits | ~32 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 7.6 GB | Fits | ~37 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 6.8 GB | Fits | ~44 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 5.8 GB | Fits | ~54 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 4.9 GB | Fits | ~70 tok/s |
GPUs that run Qwen3 8B comfortably
Models that run well on the NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB
Frequently asked questions
Can NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB run Qwen3 8B?
Yes. The NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB can run Qwen3 8B fully in VRAM at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 10.5 GB of the 12 GB available, at roughly 25 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Qwen3 8B need?
About 6.8 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 18.2 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Qwen3 8B on the NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB?
Roughly 25 tokens per second at Q8_0, estimated from the NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB's 360 GB/s memory bandwidth.