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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

For running models locally, priced in Canada. At 64k context the first runs 16 models fully in memory, the second 49.

In short

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 has more memory for models: 32 GB against 12 GB. At 64k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 runs 49 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 16; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 holds Qwen 3.8 27B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is about 5.0× as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (estimated, median across models). In Canada the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $497 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 $10,000 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $9,503 cheaper.

Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

$497

Amazon

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

$10,000

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
GPUGeForce RTX 3060 12GBGeForce RTX 5090
Memory12 GB GDDR632 GB GDDR7
Memory bus192-bit512-bit
Memory bandwidth360 GB/s1,792 GB/s
FP16 compute25.6 TFLOPS209 TFLOPS
SoftwareCUDACUDA
Board power170 W575 W
PCIe generationGen 4Gen 5
PCIe lanesx16x16

What each runs

Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.

ModelNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
Qwen 3.8 27Boffload39tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.6 27Boffload41tok/sQ6_K
Gemma 4 31Boffload35tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3Boffload167tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.5 27Boffload41tok/sQ6_K
Gemma 4 26B-A4Boffload117tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3Boffload175tok/sQ6_K
GLM 4.7 Flashoffload87tok/sQ6_K
Devstral Small 2 24Boffload37tok/sQ6_K
gpt-oss 20Boffload165tok/sMXFP4
Kimi Linear 48B-A3Boffload277tok/sQ4_K_M
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3Boffload75tok/sQ6_K
Gemma 4 12B23tok/sQ5_K_M79tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B23tok/sQ6_K95tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 3 27Boffload40tok/sQ6_K
Mistral Small 3.2 24Boffload37tok/sQ6_K
Ministral 3 14Boffload44tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 14Boffload42tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8Boffload61tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8Boffload61tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14Boffload38tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B33tok/sQ8_0166tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8Boffload61tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8Boffload55tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B22tok/sQ8_0110tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B33tok/sUD-Q6_K156tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8Boffload73tok/sQ6_K
Qwen2.5 0.5B167tok/sQ8_0831tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 0.8B136tok/sQ8_0679tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 2B99tok/sQ5_K_M492tok/sQ5_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B59tok/sQ8_0294tok/sQ8_0
MiniCPM5 2B41tok/sQ8_0202tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 2.6B32tok/sQ8_0161tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 VL 3B32tok/sQ8_0161tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.6V Flash25tok/sQ4_K_M88tok/sQ8_0
granite vision 4.1 4b25tok/sQ8_0124tok/sQ8_0
granite 4.2 3b24tok/sQ8_0120tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B22tok/sQ6_K94tok/sQ8_0
Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinkingoffload183tok/sQ8_0
Kimi VL A3Boffload126tok/smlx-8bit
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8Boffload65tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 2512offload61tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.1V 9B Thinkingoffload77tok/smlx-8bit
LFM2.5 24B A2Boffload89tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14Boffload39tok/sQ8_0
Devstral Small 2507offload40tok/sQ5_K_M
Magistral Small 2506offload37tok/sQ6_K
Magistral Small 2507offload40tok/sQ5_K_M
Magistral Small 2509offload40tok/sQ5_K_M
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Bwon't runoffload
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon't runoffload
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runoffload
Mistral Small 4 119Bwon't runoffload
GLM 4.5 Airwon't runoffload
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon't runoffload
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 32Boffloadoffload
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32Boffloadoffload
granite 4.2 30boffloadoffload
DeepSeek V4 Flashwon't runwon't run
GLM 5.3 Flashwon't runwon't run
Qwen 3.8 Flash Nextwon't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.7won't runwon't run
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
Llama 3.3 70Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 0528won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3 0324won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.2won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Expwon't runwon't run
Devstral 2 123B Instruct 2512won't runwon't run
GLM 4.5Vwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.6Vwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.7won't runwon't run
GLM 5.1won't runwon't run
GLM 5.2won't runwon't run
GLM 5.3won't runwon't run
Kimi K2won't runwon't run
Kimi K2 Instruct 0905won't runwon't run
Kimi K2 Thinkingwon't runwon't run
Kimi K2.5won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.1won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.5won't runwon't run
MiniMax M3won't runwon't run
Mistral Medium 3.5 128Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
At 64k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 runs 49 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 16; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 holds Qwen 3.8 27B.
Which is faster for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is about 5.0× as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (estimated, median across models).
What is the price difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
In Canada the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $497 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 $10,000 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $9,503 cheaper.

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