HomeCan I run it?Qwen3-Coder 30BQwen3-Coder 30B on an RTX 3060 12GB
No. Qwen3-Coder 30B at Q4_K_M needs about 22.3 GB, and the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB has 12.0 GB usable at a ~4k context.
Can I run Qwen3-Coder 30B on an RTX 3060 12GB?
Qwen3-Coder 30B at Q4_K_M needs about 22.3 GB, and the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB has 12.0 GB usable. That figure is 12 GB of VRAM on the spec sheet, of which 12.0 GB is usable for weights and cache, at 360 GB/s memory bandwidth. The coding-tuned sibling of Qwen3-30B-A3B. Memory need matches the base 30B-A3B; the weights are trained for code. These are estimates from our formula, not measured benchmarks.
- Quant that fits
- None of Q4, Q8 or FP16 needs 22.3 GB
- Memory needed
- 22.3 GB at Q4_K_M, ~4k context
- Usable VRAM
- 12.0 GB of 12 GB VRAM
- Est. tokens/sec
- n/a does not fit
Memory at each quant
| Quant | Need vs 12.0 GB | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 22.3 GB | Q4Won’t fit |
| Q8_0 | 38.3 GB | Q8Won’t fit |
| FP16 | 71.2 GB | FP16Won’t fit |
Estimated tokens per second
No speed estimate: Qwen3-Coder 30B does not fit in the 12.0 GB this machine can use, so we do not publish a tokens/sec figure for CPU offload.
Context headroom
Even at a short ~4k context, the weights do not fit. Extending context would only increase the gap.
| Context | KV cache (FP16) | Total at Q4_K_M | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4k | 0.4 GB | 22.3 GB | Won’t fit |
| 8k | 0.8 GB | 22.7 GB | Won’t fit |
| 16k | 1.6 GB | 23.5 GB | Won’t fit |
| 32k | 3.2 GB | 25.1 GB | Won’t fit |
| 64k | 6.4 GB | 28.3 GB | Won’t fit |
| 128k | 12.9 GB | 34.8 GB | Won’t fit |
What to do instead
- Run R1 Distill 14B instead (11.3 GB at Q4). It is a different model, not a drop-in, but it does fit this machine.
- To hold Qwen3-Coder 30B at Q4, you need about 22.3 GB. The GeForce RTX 3090 has 24.0 GB usable ($1499 list price).
- 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 We do not publish an offload tokens/sec figure.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 and the Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct model page.
Other hardware for Qwen3-Coder 30B
- Qwen3-Coder 30B on an RTX 4090Tight
- Qwen3-Coder 30B on an RTX 3090Tight
- Qwen3-Coder 30B on an RTX 5070 TiWon’t fit
- Qwen3-Coder 30B on a Mac mini 32GBTight
- Qwen3-Coder 30B on an Arc B580Won’t fit
Other models on an RTX 3060 12GB
- Qwen3-32B on an RTX 3060 12GBWon’t fit
- Qwen3-30B-A3B on an RTX 3060 12GBWon’t fit
- Qwen3.8-27B on an RTX 3060 12GBWon’t fit
- Gemma 3 27B on an RTX 3060 12GBWon’t fit
- Gemma 4 31B on an RTX 3060 12GBWon’t fit
- gpt-oss-20b on an RTX 3060 12GBWon’t fit
Quick answers
- Can I run Qwen3-Coder 30B on an RTX 3060 12GB?
- No. Qwen3-Coder 30B at Q4_K_M needs about 22.3 GB, and the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB has 12.0 GB usable.
- How much VRAM does Qwen3-Coder 30B need?
- About 22.3 GB at Q4_K_M, 38.3 GB at Q8_0 and 71.2 GB at FP16, estimated for a ~4k context.
- How fast is Qwen3-Coder 30B on an RTX 3060 12GB?
- We do not estimate tokens/sec when the model does not fit. CPU offload is possible but slow.
- What context length can I use?
- The weights already do not fit, so longer context is not the limiting factor.