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DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B

70.6B parameters · 128k context · Llama 3.3 License · released 2025-01-20

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In short

DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B is an open model from DeepSeek with 70.6B parameters. At mlx-3bit, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B needs about 32 GB of memory at 8k context and 70 GB at 128k, counting the weights, the KV cache and runtime buffers. Nothing we price in Germany runs DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B fully in memory at 128k context at a usable speed; see the table for what comes closest.

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

What to run it on in Germany

Fully in memory at 128k context, priced at retailers today.

Something we price holds it fully in memory, but none reaches 15 tok/s, our bar for recommending it. The table below has the speeds.

All hardware that runs it

Everything we price, best value first. Two cards split the model by layers.

HardwareQuantFitsDecodePricetok/s per 1,000
GMKtec EVO-X2 Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GBQ5_K_Mfits2 tok/s3.700 €0.4
Mac Studio M4 Max 128GBQ5_K_Mfits4 tok/s5.800 €0.7
NVIDIA DGX Spark 128GBQ8_0fits1 tok/s8.313 €0.2
ASUS Ascent GX10 128GBQ8_0fits1 tok/s8.623 €0.2
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GBQ8_0fits5 tok/s15.555 €0.3
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 512GBQ8_0fits5 tok/s18.995 €0.2
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 BlackwellQ5_K_Mfits12 tok/s19.076 €0.6
Framework Desktop Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GBQ5_K_Mfits2 tok/s––

32 other cards and machines we price cannot hold it at this context.

Memory needed

Weights, KV cache and runtime buffers at each context length (KV cache at fp16).

QuantFile@8k@32k@64k@128k
mlx-3bitmlx28.7 GB32.0 GB39.6 GB49.8 GB70.2 GB
mlx-4bitmlx37.0 GB40.2 GB47.9 GB58.0 GB78.4 GB
Q4_K_Mgguf39.6 GB42.8 GB50.5 GB60.7 GB81.1 GB
Q5_K_Mgguf46.5 GB49.8 GB57.4 GB67.6 GB88.0 GB
mlx-6bitmlx53.4 GB56.6 GB64.3 GB74.5 GB94.8 GB
mlx-8bitmlx69.8 GB73.1 GB80.7 GB90.9 GB111.3 GB
Q8_0gguf69.8 GB73.1 GB80.7 GB90.9 GB111.3 GB

Run it

Copy a command for the runtime you use.

  • mlx-3bit
    • LM Studiolms get mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-3bit
    • MLXmlx_lm.server --model mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-3bit
  • mlx-4bit
    • LM Studiolms get mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-4bit
    • MLXmlx_lm.server --model mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-4bit
  • Q4_K_M
    • Ollamaollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q4_K_M
    • LM Studiolms get unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF@q4_k_m
    • llama.cppllama-server -hf unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q4_K_M
  • Q5_K_M
    • Ollamaollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q5_K_M
    • LM Studiolms get unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF@q5_k_m
    • llama.cppllama-server -hf unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q5_K_M
  • mlx-6bit
    • LM Studiolms get mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-6bit
    • MLXmlx_lm.server --model mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-6bit
  • mlx-8bit
    • LM Studiolms get mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-8bit
    • MLXmlx_lm.server --model mlx-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-8bit
  • Q8_0
    • Ollamaollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q8_0
    • LM Studiolms get unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF@q8_0
    • llama.cppllama-server -hf unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q8_0

Notes

Derived from Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, so the Llama 3.3 license applies, although the card header says MIT. Avoid system prompts, use temperature 0.5-0.7, and force responses to start with "<think>\n".

Questions

How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B need?
At mlx-3bit, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B needs about 32 GB of memory at 8k context and 70 GB at 128k, counting the weights, the KV cache and runtime buffers.
Can I run DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B on a 16 GB GPU?
No: it does not fit in 16 GB at 128k context, even with system RAM.
Can I run DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B on a 24 GB GPU?
No: it does not fit in 24 GB at 128k context, even with system RAM.
How do I run DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B locally?
With Ollama: ollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q4_K_M (the Q4_K_M build). LM Studio and llama.cpp commands are on this page.
What licence is DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B released under?
Llama 3.3 License.