NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB vs NVIDIA Tesla P40
For running models locally, priced in Germany. At 8k context the first runs 13 models fully in memory, the second 28.
In short
The NVIDIA Tesla P40 has more memory for models: 24 GB against 12 GB. At 8k context the NVIDIA Tesla P40 runs 28 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 13; only the NVIDIA Tesla P40 holds Qwen 3.8 27B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 are about as fast as each other (estimated). In Germany the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs 309 € at Amazon and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 369 € at eBay (used): the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is 60 € cheaper.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
Specifications
| Spec | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | NVIDIA Tesla P40 |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | Tesla P40 |
| Memory | 12 GB GDDR6 | 24 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory bus | 192-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 346 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 25.6 TFLOPS | 11.8 TFLOPS |
| Software | CUDA | CUDA |
| Board power | 170 W | 250 W |
| PCIe generation | Gen 4 | Gen 3 |
| PCIe lanes | x16 | x16 |
What each runs
Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.
| Model | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | NVIDIA Tesla P40 |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.8 27B | offload | 10tok/sUD-Q6_K |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | offload | 9tok/sQ6_K |
| Gemma 4 31B | offload | 9tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B | offload | 62tok/sUD-Q4_K_M |
| Qwen 3.5 27B | offload | 9tok/sQ6_K |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | offload | 32tok/sUD-Q6_K |
| Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B | offload | 62tok/sQ4_K_M |
| GLM 4.7 Flash | offload | 32tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Devstral Small 2 24B | offload | 10tok/sQ6_K |
| gpt-oss 20B | offload | 49tok/sMXFP4 |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B | offload | 44tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Qwen3 32B | offload | 10tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Gemma 4 12B | 22tok/sQ6_K | 16tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | 23tok/sQ8_0 | 22tok/sQ8_0 |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | offload | 10tok/sQ6_K |
| Gemma 3 27B | offload | 9tok/sQ6_K |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B | offload | 10tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Qwen3 14B | 22tok/sQ4_K_M | 13tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 14B | 20tok/sQ5_K_M | 14tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B | 23tok/sQ8_0 | 22tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3 8B | 23tok/sQ8_0 | 22tok/sQ8_0 |
| Phi-4 14B | 21tok/sQ4_K_M | 12tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | 47tok/sQ8_0 | 45tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B | 22tok/sQ8_0 | 21tok/sQ8_0 |
| Granite 4.2 8B | 21tok/sQ8_0 | 20tok/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 26tok/sQ8_0 | 25tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | 91tok/sQ8_0 | 88tok/sQ8_0 |
| Llama 3.1 8B | 29tok/sQ6_K | 28tok/sQ6_K |
| Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen3 Coder Next | won't run | offload |
| Mistral Small 4 119B | won't run | offload |
| GLM 4.5 Air | won't run | offload |
| Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B | won't run | offload |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B | offload | offload |
| Kimi Linear 48B-A3B | offload | offload |
| Llama 3.3 70B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 5.3 Flash | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen 3.8 Flash Next | won't run | won't run |
| MiniMax M2.7 | won't run | won't run |
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B | won't run | won't run |
| gpt-oss 120B | won't run | won't run |
Questions
- Which is better for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
- Choose the NVIDIA Tesla P40 to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB to spend less.
- Which can run bigger models, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
- At 8k context the NVIDIA Tesla P40 runs 28 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 13; only the NVIDIA Tesla P40 holds Qwen 3.8 27B.
- Which is faster for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
- On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 are about as fast as each other (estimated).
- What is the price difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
- In Germany the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs 309 € at Amazon and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 369 € at eBay (used): the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is 60 € cheaper.
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