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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB

For running models locally, priced in the UK. At 8k context the first runs 13 models fully in memory, the second 10.

In short

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB has more memory for models: 12 GB against 10 GB. At 8k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB runs 13 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB 10; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB holds Qwen3 14B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB is about 2.5× as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (estimated, median across models). In the UK the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs £390 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB £466 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is £76 cheaper.

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

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

£390

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB

£466

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
GPUGeForce RTX 3060 12GBGeForce RTX 3080 10GB
Memory12 GB GDDR610 GB GDDR6X
Memory bus192-bit320-bit
Memory bandwidth360 GB/s760 GB/s
FP16 compute25.6 TFLOPS59.5 TFLOPS
SoftwareCUDACUDA
Board power170 W320 W
PCIe generationGen 4Gen 4
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 3080 10GB
Gemma 4 12B22tok/sQ6_K53tok/sQ5_K_M
Qwen 3.5 9B23tok/sQ8_061tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 14B22tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Ministral 3 14B20tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B23tok/sQ8_059tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 8B23tok/sQ8_059tok/sQ6_K
Phi-4 14B21tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Qwen 3.5 4B47tok/sQ8_098tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B22tok/sQ8_058tok/sQ6_K
Granite 4.2 8B21tok/sQ8_053tok/sQ6_K
Gemma 4 E4B26tok/sQ8_056tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B91tok/sQ8_0228tok/sUD-Q6_K
Llama 3.1 8B29tok/sQ6_K61tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.8 27Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.6 27Boffloadoffload
Gemma 4 31Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.5 27Boffloadoffload
Gemma 4 26B-A4Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3Boffloadoffload
GLM 4.7 Flashoffloadoffload
Devstral Small 2 24Boffloadoffload
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
gpt-oss 20Boffloadoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 32Boffloadoffload
Mistral Small 3.2 24Boffloadoffload
Gemma 3 27Boffloadoffload
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32Boffloadoffload
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
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Bwon't runwon't run
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runwon't run
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
Mistral Small 4 119Bwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.5 Airwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon't runwon't run
Llama 3.3 70Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB?
Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB 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 3080 10GB?
At 8k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB runs 13 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB 10; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB holds Qwen3 14B.
Which is faster for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB is about 2.5× 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 3080 10GB?
In the UK the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs £390 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB £466 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is £76 cheaper.

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