What can the RTX 3060 run?
With 12 GB, 4 of 12 popular open models fit. The best pick is Qwen3 14B at about 21 tok/s, about reading speed.
ollama run qwen3:14bFirst time? Install Ollama, then paste that into a terminal. Is this your machine? Check it on the homepage.
Every model the RTX 3060 8 GB can run
2 of 12 fit. Best pick: Qwen3 8B.
- Qwen3 4BQuick everyday chat and summaries~79 tok/sRuns great
qwen3:4b - Qwen3 8BA solid all-rounder for chat and writing~38 tok/sRuns great
qwen3:8b - Gemma 3 12BReads images as well as textneeds 10 GBToo big
gemma3:12b - Qwen3 14BNoticeably smarter at reasoning and codeneeds 11 GBToo big
qwen3:14b - gpt-oss 20BOpenAI's open model. Fast, strong reasoningneeds 16 GBToo big
gpt-oss:20b - Gemma 3 27BGoogle's best open model for its sizeneeds 19 GBToo big
gemma3:27b - Qwen3 30B-A3B30B smarts at small-model speedneeds 21 GBToo big
qwen3:30b - Qwen3 32BStrong coding and long answersneeds 22 GBToo big
qwen3:32b - Llama 3.3 70BClose to the big cloud modelsneeds 45 GBToo big
llama3.3:70b - gpt-oss 120BOpenAI's largest open modelneeds 67 GBToo big
gpt-oss:120b - Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba's flagship open model, for multi-GPU rigsneeds 144 GBToo big
qwen3:235b - DeepSeek R1 671BThe full DeepSeek R1, for the biggest rigsneeds 406 GBToo big
deepseek-r1:671b
Every model the RTX 3060 12 GB can run
4 of 12 fit. Best pick: Qwen3 14B.
- Qwen3 4BQuick everyday chat and summaries~79 tok/sRuns great
qwen3:4b - Qwen3 8BA solid all-rounder for chat and writing~38 tok/sRuns great
qwen3:8b - Gemma 3 12BReads images as well as text~24 tok/sUsable
gemma3:12b - Qwen3 14BNoticeably smarter at reasoning and code~21 tok/sUsable
qwen3:14b - gpt-oss 20BOpenAI's open model. Fast, strong reasoningneeds 16 GBToo big
gpt-oss:20b - Gemma 3 27BGoogle's best open model for its sizeneeds 19 GBToo big
gemma3:27b - Qwen3 30B-A3B30B smarts at small-model speedneeds 21 GBToo big
qwen3:30b - Qwen3 32BStrong coding and long answersneeds 22 GBToo big
qwen3:32b - Llama 3.3 70BClose to the big cloud modelsneeds 45 GBToo big
llama3.3:70b - gpt-oss 120BOpenAI's largest open modelneeds 67 GBToo big
gpt-oss:120b - Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba's flagship open model, for multi-GPU rigsneeds 144 GBToo big
qwen3:235b - DeepSeek R1 671BThe full DeepSeek R1, for the biggest rigsneeds 406 GBToo big
deepseek-r1:671b
Can the RTX 3060 run it?
Can the RTX 3060 run Gemma 3 12B?
Yes, with 12 GB or more. Gemma 3 12B needs about 10 GB and the RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM. Expect about 24 tok/s, about reading speed. The 8 GB version doesn't have room.
Can the RTX 3060 run Qwen3 14B?
Yes, with 12 GB or more. Qwen3 14B needs about 11 GB and the RTX 3060 has 12 GB of VRAM. Expect about 21 tok/s, about reading speed. The 8 GB version doesn't have room.
Can the RTX 3060 run gpt-oss 20B?
No. gpt-oss 20B needs about 16 GB and the RTX 3060 has at most 12 GB of VRAM. Ollama can still start it by putting part of the model in system RAM, but it runs several times slower. The most capable model it runs well is Qwen3 14B, at about 21 tok/s.
Real runs on the RTX 3060
Loading measured runs…
Generating a token reads the model's active weights from memory once, so speed is roughly memory bandwidth (360 GB/s) divided by the active weight size, with efficiency calibrated on our own rack. Sizes are Ollama's default 4-bit downloads plus about 1.2 GB for context. Real results are usually within about a third. Measured runs are on the leaderboard.
The Used workstation + 2× Tesla P100 runs Qwen3 32B at about 20 tok/s, from $750 used.