Can I Run DeepSeek R1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090?

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated January 20, 2025

Yes, comfortably — you'll have ~4.5 GB of headroom running DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B at Q4_K_M (19.5 GB, ~48 tok/s (est.)) with room for up to 8K context.

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Check price on Amazon — NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 24GB

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Specs

VRAM24 GB
Memory Bandwidth936 GB/s

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090: VRAM by quantization

QuantVRAM neededFits 24 GB?Max context
F1665.9 GB✗ No
Q8_035.9 GB✗ No
Q6_K28.1 GB✗ No
Q5_K_M24.6 GB✗ No
Q4_K_M21.2 GB✓ Yes8K
Q3_K_M15.5 GB✓ Yes32K
Q2_K12.4 GB✓ Yes32K

VRAM needed assumes a 4K-token context with an f16 KV cache; “Max context” is the largest window that still fits in 24 GB. Figures are estimates from parameter count, quantization and memory bandwidth — the analyzer lets you tune KV-cache quant and context.

DeepSeek R1 Sizes That Fit the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BQ4_K_M · 19.5 GB · ~48 tok/s (est.)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14BQ4_K_M · 9.2 GB · ~102 tok/s (est.)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8BQ4_K_M · 5.8 GB · ~161 tok/s (est.)
Buy vs. rent DeepSeek R1
Buy the GPU
~$1,499
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 · MSRP
Rent by the hour
from $0.34/hr
RTX 4090 (24 GB) class

At 2 hrs/day, buying (~$1,499) beats renting at $0.34/hr after about 6.1 years.

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RunPod $0.34/hr
Rent on RunPod →
Vast.ai $0.35/hr · typical low · varies
Rent on Vast.ai →

Cloud rates verified 2026-07 — estimates, and marketplace prices vary. Buying price is GPU MSRP only, not a full PC.

FAQ

Does the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 have enough VRAM for DeepSeek R1?

Yes, comfortably — you'll have ~4.5 GB of headroom running DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B at Q4_K_M (19.5 GB, ~48 tok/s (est.)) with room for up to 8K context.

Which quantization of DeepSeek R1 should I use on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B at Q4_K_M quantization (19.5 GB), estimated ~48 tokens/sec, up to 8K context.

DeepSeek R1 on Other GPUs

Popular Models on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

VRAM Tier

Troubleshooting

Buying Guide

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