What fits in 12 GB of VRAM
Data updated . Last reviewed the same day, when this catalog snapshot was written.
Usable memory here is 11.4 GB, which is 95% of 12 GB. 21 of 49 catalog models fit at Q4, Q8, or FP16. 6 catalog GPUs have this much VRAM. 6 of the fits do not fit the 8 GB tier.
Models
Sorted by the highest quant that fits, then by headroom. The tok/s estimate uses GeForce RTX 5070 bandwidth only.
| Model | Best quant | Estimate | Headroom | Est. tok/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | FP16 | 3.0 GB | 8.4 GB | 272 tok/s |
| Llama 3.2 3B Instruct | FP16 | 7.7 GB | 3.7 GB | 105 tok/s |
| Phi-3.5 mini | FP16 | 9.2 GB | 2.2 GB | 87.9 tok/s |
| Phi-4 mini | FP16 | 9.2 GB | 2.2 GB | 87.6 tok/s |
| Gemma 3 4B | FP16 | 10.3 GB | 1.1 GB | 78.1 tok/s |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | Q8 | 4.5 GB | 6.9 GB | 3950 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 E4B | Q8 | 8.3 GB | 3.1 GB | 82.0 tok/s |
| Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Q8 | 8.6 GB | 2.8 GB | 83.0 tok/s |
| Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 | Q8 | 8.8 GB | 2.6 GB | 87.2 tok/s |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | Q8 | 9.6 GB | 1.8 GB | 78.7 tok/s |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Q8 | 9.6 GB | 1.8 GB | 83.7 tok/s |
| Qwen3 8B | Q8 | 9.9 GB | 1.5 GB | 77.2 tok/s |
| Ministral 3 8B | Q8 | 10.2 GB | 1.2 GB | 74.4 tok/s |
| Gemma 2 9B | Q8 | 10.7 GB | 0.7 GB | 62.9 tok/s |
| Gemma 3 12B | Q4 | 7.3 GB | 4.1 GB | 92.0 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 12B | Q4 | 7.7 GB | 3.7 GB | 94.4 tok/s |
| Mistral Nemo 12B | Q4 | 8.8 GB | 2.6 GB | 89.9 tok/s |
| Ministral 3 14B | Q4 | 9.6 GB | 1.8 GB | 81.6 tok/s |
| Qwen3 14B | Q4 | 10.3 GB | 1.1 GB | 74.7 tok/s |
| Phi-4 | Q4 | 10.6 GB | 0.8 GB | 75.6 tok/s |
| Qwen2.5 14B Instruct | Q4 | 10.6 GB | 0.8 GB | 74.8 tok/s |
Next misses at Q4: gpt-oss-20b (11.8 GB), Mistral Small 3.2 24B (15.7 GB), Gemma 3 27B (16.5 GB), Gemma 2 27B (16.6 GB), Qwen3.8 27B (17.0 GB).
GPUs at 12 GB
- GeForce RTX 3060 12GB
12.0 GB vram · $329
- Radeon RX 7700 XT
12.0 GB vram · $449
- GeForce RTX 5070
12.0 GB vram · $549
- GeForce RTX 4070
12.0 GB vram · $599
- GeForce RTX 4070 Super
12.0 GB vram · $599
- GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
12.0 GB vram · $799
Questions
- How many catalog models fit in 12 GB of VRAM?
- 21 of 49 fit at Q4 or better inside 11.4 GB usable (95% of 12 GB).
- Which catalog GPUs have 12 GB of VRAM?
- GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, Radeon RX 7700 XT, GeForce RTX 5070, GeForce RTX 4070, GeForce RTX 4070 Super, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
- Is the tokens/sec column a benchmark?
- No. It divides the GeForce RTX 5070's 672 GB/s by active weight size. Other 12 GB cards are slower or faster than that.