readygpu

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB vs NVIDIA Tesla P40

For running models locally, priced in the US. At 64k context the first runs 5 models fully in memory, the second 22.

In short

The NVIDIA Tesla P40 has more memory for models: 24 GB against 12 GB. At 64k context the NVIDIA Tesla P40 runs 22 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 5; only the NVIDIA Tesla P40 holds Qwen 3.8 27B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is about 1.1× as fast as the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (estimated, median across models). In the US the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $360 at Amazon and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 $405 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $45 cheaper.

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

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

$360

Amazon

Add to build
NVIDIA Tesla P40

$405

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBNVIDIA Tesla P40
GPUGeForce RTX 3060 12GBTesla P40
Memory12 GB GDDR624 GB GDDR5
Memory bus192-bit384-bit
Memory bandwidth360 GB/s346 GB/s
FP16 compute25.6 TFLOPS11.8 TFLOPS
SoftwareCUDACUDA
Board power170 W250 W
PCIe generationGen 4Gen 3
PCIe lanesx16x16

What each runs

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

ModelNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GBNVIDIA Tesla P40
Qwen 3.8 27Boffload10tok/sUD-Q4_K_M
Qwen 3.6 27Boffload9tok/sQ5_K_M
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3Boffload40tok/sUD-Q4_K_M
Qwen 3.5 27Boffload10tok/sQ4_K_M
Gemma 4 26B-A4Boffload27tok/sUD-Q5_K_M
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3Boffload40tok/sQ4_K_M
GLM 4.7 Flashoffload20tok/sQ4_K_M
gpt-oss 20Boffload32tok/sMXFP4
Gemma 4 12B23tok/sQ5_K_M15tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B23tok/sQ6_K18tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 3 27Boffload10tok/sQ4_K_M
Ministral 3 14Boffload10tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 14Boffload9tok/sQ6_K
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8Boffload12tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8Boffload12tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14Boffload9tok/sQ5_K_M
Qwen 3.5 4B33tok/sQ8_032tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8Boffload12tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8Boffload11tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B22tok/sQ8_021tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B33tok/sUD-Q6_K30tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8Boffload14tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Bwon't runoffload
Gemma 4 31Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runoffload
Mistral Small 4 119Bwon't runoffload
Devstral Small 2 24Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon't runoffload
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 32Boffloadoffload
Mistral Small 3.2 24Boffloadoffload
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
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon't runwon't run
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.5 Airwon'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 Tesla P40?
Choose the NVIDIA Tesla P40 to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 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 Tesla P40?
At 64k context the NVIDIA Tesla P40 runs 22 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 5; 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 is about 1.1× as fast as the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (estimated, median across models).
What is the price difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
In the US the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB costs $360 at Amazon and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 $405 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is $45 cheaper.

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