# Can I run DeepSeek-R1 on an RTX 4090? | What Can I Run AI?

> No. DeepSeek-R1 needs about 478.2 GB at Q4_K_M, and RTX 4090 has 24.0 GB usable. What to run instead.

Source: https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/deepseek-r1/rtx-4090/

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**No.** DeepSeek-R1 at Q4\_K\_M needs about 478.2 GB, and the GeForce RTX 4090 has 24.0 GB usable at a \~4k context.

# Can I run DeepSeek-R1 on an RTX 4090?

DeepSeek-R1 at Q4\_K\_M needs about 478.2 GB, and the GeForce RTX 4090 has 24.0 GB usable. That figure is 24 GB of VRAM on the spec sheet, of which 24.0 GB is usable for weights and cache, at 1008 GB/s memory bandwidth. The full DeepSeek-R1 teacher model (hundreds of billions of parameters). No single device we track holds it at Q4\. These are estimates from [our formula](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/method/), not measured benchmarks.

Quant that fits

None of Q4, Q8 or FP16 needs 478.2 GB

Memory needed

478.2 GB at Q4\_K\_M, \~4k context

Usable VRAM

24.0 GB of 24 GB VRAM

Est. tokens/sec

n/a does not fit

[DeepSeek-R1](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/models/deepseek-r1/) · [GeForce RTX 4090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/hardware/rtx-4090/) · [Everything this machine runs](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/what-can-i-run/rtx-4090/) · [Q4 vs Q8 vs FP16](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/quantization/)

## Memory at each quant

| Quant    | Need vs 24.0 GB | Verdict       |
| -------- | --------------- | ------------- |
| Q4\_K\_M | 478.2 GB        | Q4Won’t fit   |
| Q8\_0    | 837.4 GB        | Q8Won’t fit   |
| FP16     | 1575.3 GB       | FP16Won’t fit |

## Estimated tokens per second

No speed estimate: DeepSeek-R1 does not fit in the 24.0 GB this machine can use, so we do not publish a tokens/sec figure for CPU offload.

## Context headroom

We do not have a published KV config for this model, so the memory need is the \~4k-context estimate only. Use the [VRAM calculator](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/vram-calculator/) to explore longer chats.

## What to do instead

* Run [R1 Distill 32B](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-32b/rtx-4090/) instead (23.8 GB at Q4). It is a different model, not a drop-in, but it does fit this machine.
* No single device we track has enough usable memory for DeepSeek-R1 at Q4 (478.2 GB needed). A smaller distill or a hosted API is the practical path.
* CPU offload can load the weights anyway, but it is slow. We do not publish an offload tokens/sec figure.
* See the [best GPU for this model family](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/best-gpu-for/deepseek-r1/) and the [DeepSeek-R1 model page](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/models/deepseek-r1/).

## Other hardware for DeepSeek-R1

* [DeepSeek-R1 on a Mac Studio 512GB](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/deepseek-r1/mac-studio-m5-ultra-512/)Won’t fit
* [DeepSeek-R1 on a Mac Studio 256GB](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/deepseek-r1/mac-studio-m5-ultra-256/)Won’t fit
* [DeepSeek-R1 on dual RTX 3090s](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/deepseek-r1/dual-rtx-3090/)Won’t fit
* [DeepSeek-R1 on an RTX 5090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/deepseek-r1/rtx-5090/)Won’t fit

## Other models on an RTX 4090

* [Qwen3-32B on an RTX 4090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/qwen3-32b/rtx-4090/)Tight
* [Qwen3-30B-A3B on an RTX 4090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/qwen3-30b-a3b/rtx-4090/)Tight
* [Qwen3.8-27B on an RTX 4090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/qwen3.8-27b/rtx-4090/)Fits
* [Gemma 3 27B on an RTX 4090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/gemma-3-27b-it/rtx-4090/)Fits
* [Gemma 4 31B on an RTX 4090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/gemma-4-31b-it/rtx-4090/)Tight
* [gpt-oss-20b on an RTX 4090](https://whatcanirunai.vercel.app/can-i-run/gpt-oss-20b/rtx-4090/)Fits

## Quick answers

Can I run DeepSeek-R1 on an RTX 4090?

No. DeepSeek-R1 at Q4\_K\_M needs about 478.2 GB, and the GeForce RTX 4090 has 24.0 GB usable.

How much VRAM does DeepSeek-R1 need?

About 478.2 GB at Q4\_K\_M, 837.4 GB at Q8\_0 and 1575.3 GB at FP16, estimated for a \~4k context.

How fast is DeepSeek-R1 on an RTX 4090?

We do not estimate tokens/sec when the model does not fit. CPU offload is possible but slow.

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