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

For running models locally, priced in the US. At 32k context the first runs 27 models fully in memory, the second 19.

In short

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB has more memory for models: 12 GB against 10 GB. At 32k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB runs 27 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB 19; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB holds DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB is about 2.1× as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (estimated, median across models). In the US the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $370 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB $450 at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $80 cheaper.

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

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

$370

Amazon

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB

$450

Amazon

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 12B21tok/sQ6_K59tok/sQ4_K_M
Qwen 3.5 9B21tok/sQ8_055tok/sQ6_K
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B21tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
Qwen3 8B21tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
Qwen 3.5 4B40tok/sQ8_084tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B21tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
Granite 4.2 8B21tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Gemma 4 E4B24tok/sQ8_059tok/sQ6_K
LFM2.5 8B-A1B50tok/sQ8_0116tok/sUD-Q6_K
Llama 3.1 8B21tok/sQ6_Koffload
Qwen2.5 0.5B239tok/sQ8_0505tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 0.8B181tok/sQ8_0382tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 2B120tok/sQ5_K_M254tok/sQ5_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B79tok/sQ8_0166tok/sQ8_0
MiniCPM5 2B55tok/sQ8_0115tok/sQ8_0
Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking52tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
Spark X2.5 4B52tok/smlx-4bit110tok/smlx-4bit
LFM2.5 2.6B46tok/sQ8_096tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 VL 3B46tok/sQ8_096tok/sQ8_0
FrogNano 4B 260939tok/sQ8_082tok/sQ8_0
granite vision 4.1 4b35tok/sQ8_075tok/sQ8_0
granite 4.2 3b34tok/sQ8_072tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.6V Flash30tok/sQ4_K_M63tok/sQ4_K_M
GLM 4 9B 041423tok/smlx-5bit56tok/smlx-4bit
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B22tok/sQ8_058tok/sQ6_K
Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 251221tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B21tok/sQ6_Koffload
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
Gemma 3 27Boffloadoffload
Mistral Small 3.2 24Boffloadoffload
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32Boffloadoffload
Ministral 3 14Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 14Boffloadoffload
Phi-4 14Boffloadoffload
Kimi VL A3B Thinking 2506offloadoffload
Kimi VL A3Boffloadoffload
LFM2.5 24B A2Boffloadoffload
GLM 4.1V 9B Thinkingoffloadoffload
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14Boffloadoffload
Devstral Small 2507offloadoffload
Magistral Small 2506offloadoffload
Magistral Small 2507offloadoffload
Magistral Small 2509offloadoffload
Qwen3.8 27B OBLITERATEDoffloadoffload
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
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
DeepSeek R1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 0528won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Zerowon't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3 0324won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminuswon'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 4.5won't runwon't run
GLM 4.5Vwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.6won't runwon't run
GLM 4.6Vwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.7won't runwon't run
GLM 5won'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 Dev 72Bwon'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 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 32k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB runs 27 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB 19; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB holds DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B.
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 2.1× 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 US the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $370 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB $450 at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $80 cheaper.

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