Advisor / Hardware / RTX 3060 12GB (32GB RAM)

Best local LLMs for RTX 3060 12GB (32GB RAM)

GeForce RTX 3060 12GB. Memory-fit math with KV cache, speeds labelled by how they were obtained, and commands you can paste.

11.0 GBusable for model + KV cache

360 GB/smemory bandwidth

24 GBRAM available for offload

11measured data points on file

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Best for Coding · 16k context

Model	Quant	Fit	Memory	Speed (generation)
Qwen3.5 9B	Q8_0	fits fully	10.1 GB	~37 tok/s measured src
Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B	Q4_K_M	MoE offload	20.2 GB	~28 tok/s estimated
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B	UD-Q4_K_M	MoE offload	22.5 GB	~28 tok/s estimated
Gemma 4 26B-A4B	UD-Q4_K_M	MoE offload	17.5 GB	~27 tok/s estimated
gpt-oss 20B	Q4_K_M	MoE offload	12.0 GB	~77 tok/s estimated

llama.cpp · top pick

llama-server -hf unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF:Q8_0 -c 16384 -fa on --jinja -ngl 99

ollama · top pick

OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=16384 ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF:Q8_0

Best for Chat / general · 16k context

Model	Quant	Fit	Memory	Speed (generation)
Gemma 4 12B	Q6_K	fits fully	10.4 GB	~29 tok/s scaled from measured src
Qwen3.5 9B	Q8_0	fits fully	10.1 GB	~37 tok/s measured src
Qwen3.5 4B	Q8_0	fits fully	5.1 GB	~63 tok/s measured src
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B	UD-Q4_K_M	MoE offload	22.5 GB	~28 tok/s estimated
Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B	Q4_K_M	MoE offload	20.2 GB	~28 tok/s estimated

llama.cpp · top pick

llama-server -hf unsloth/gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF:Q6_K -c 16384 -fa on --jinja -ngl 99

ollama · top pick

OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=16384 ollama run hf.co/unsloth/gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF:Q6_K

Best for Vision · 16k context

Model	Quant	Fit	Memory	Speed (generation)
Gemma 4 12B	Q6_K	fits fully	10.4 GB	~29 tok/s scaled from measured src
Qwen3.5 9B	Q8_0	fits fully	10.1 GB	~37 tok/s measured src
Qwen3-VL 8B	Q6_K	fits fully	9.1 GB	~42 tok/s scaled from measured src
Qwen3.5 4B	Q8_0	fits fully	5.1 GB	~63 tok/s measured src
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B	UD-Q4_K_M	MoE offload	22.5 GB	~28 tok/s estimated

llama.cpp · top pick

llama-server -hf unsloth/gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF:Q6_K -c 16384 -fa on --jinja -ngl 99

ollama · top pick

OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=16384 ollama run hf.co/unsloth/gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF:Q6_K

All 11 models that fit, fastest first · 16k context

Click a column header to sort. 4 of 11 speeds here are measured or scaled from measured; the rest are bandwidth estimates. Filter by use case, speed source, fit, license and more in the interactive advisor →

Model	Params	Quant	Fit	Memory	Tok/s	Source
gpt-oss 20B	20.91B MoE	Q4_K_M	MoE offload	12.0 GB	~77	estimated
Qwen3.5 4B	4.66B	Q8_0	fits fully	5.1 GB	~63	measured
Qwen3-VL 8B	8.77B	Q6_K	fits fully	9.1 GB	~42	scaled from measured
Qwen3.5 9B	9.65B	Q8_0	fits fully	10.1 GB	~37	measured
Gemma 4 12B	11.96B	Q6_K	fits fully	10.4 GB	~29	scaled from measured
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B	35.95B MoE	UD-Q4_K_M	MoE offload	22.5 GB	~28	estimated
Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B	30.53B MoE	Q4_K_M	MoE offload	20.2 GB	~28	estimated
Gemma 4 26B-A4B	25.81B MoE	UD-Q4_K_M	MoE offload	17.5 GB	~27	estimated
Mistral Small 3.2 24B	24.01B	Q4_K_M	partial offload	17.0 GB	~5	estimated
Qwen3.6 27B	27.78B	Q4_K_M	partial offload	18.1 GB	~4	estimated
Gemma 4 31B	31.27B	Q4_K_M	partial offload	20.5 GB	~3	estimated

Long context on this hardware · up to 1M tokens

Largest context whose KV cache still fits next to the weights (same placement as the 16k result, KV types f16 / q8_0 / q4_0). Models are capped at their verified maximum; extended means beyond the native maximum using YaRN, only listed where the model card documents it. Long context needs flash attention (-fa on, already in the commands) and a lot of memory; a quantized KV cache saves memory but can cost accuracy. Speed at depth is an estimate (penalty fitted to measured depth runs up to 128k).

Try it in the advisor: 128k · 256k · 512k · 1M

Model	Native max	Max ctx f16	Max ctx q8_0	Max ctx q4_0	Est. tok/s at max f16 ctx
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B UD-Q4_K_M	256k	512k extended	1M extended	1M extended	~5 estimated
Gemma 4 26B-A4B UD-Q4_K_M	256k	256k	256k	256k	~10 estimated
Qwen3.6 27B Q4_K_M	256k	256k	256k	512k extended	~2 estimated
gpt-oss 20B Q4_K_M	128k	128k	128k	128k	~35 estimated
Qwen3.5 4B Q8_0	256k	128k	256k	512k extended	~37 estimated
Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Q4_K_M	256k	128k	256k	512k extended	~5 estimated
Gemma 4 31B Q4_K_M	256k	128k	256k	256k	~2 estimated
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Q4_K_M	128k	64k	128k	128k	~3 estimated
Qwen3.5 9B Q8_0	256k	32k	64k	128k	~34 estimated
Gemma 4 12B Q6_K	256k	32k	64k	128k	~27 estimated
Qwen3-VL 8B Q6_K	256k	16k	32k	64k	~33 estimated

Affiliate box: “cheapest upgrade” for RTX 3060 12GB (32GB RAM). No affiliate links yet.

Open the interactive advisor with this hardware →

Speeds marked measured are medians of real runs (short-context generation) from these sources; scaled from measured means a measurement of a same-size or same-model-different-quant run, scaled by bytes read; estimated comes from memory bandwidth (spec source: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-3060-12-gb.c3682) × an efficiency factor of 0.86 calibrated to measured runs on this hardware. 11 measured data points on file for this hardware · submit your benchmark. System RAM here is an example (32 GB, ddr4-3200). Model data last verified 2026-10-14. Ranking = fits and fast enough first, then larger; not a quality benchmark.

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