text model · phi · Windows
Can I run Phi-4 14B on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB)?
Yes. Phi-4 14B runs on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB) at Q4_K_M (~10.8 GB of ~11 GB usable).
Fits at Q4_K_M (~10.8 GB of ~11 GB usable) but with little headroom. Close other apps; a smaller context frees a few hundred MB.
That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB) leaves ~0.2 GB of headroom.
- Q4_K_M needed
- ~10.8 GB
- Usable on device
- ~11 GB
- Device memory
- 12 GB
- Best quant
- Q4_K_M
Which quant fits
Running cost · estimate
- Power draw
- ~170 W
- Electricity / 1M tokens
- ~$0.27
- Pays for itself after
- ~1,430M tok
At ~$0.15/kWh and the estimated ~26 tok/s, a million generated tokens costs about $0.27 in electricity. Versus a hosted API at ~$0.5 per million tokens, the ~$329 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB) pays for itself after roughly 1,430 million tokens, so local hardware is mostly a fixed cost, not a per-token one. TDP is the peak draw, so this is an upper bound. Assumptions.
Run it
Pick your tool. All 3 load the same Q4_K_M weights.
ollama run phi4:14b llama-cli -hf bartowski/phi-4-GGUF:Q4_K_M lms get bartowski/phi-4-GGUF - Parameters
- 14B
- Q4_K_M size
- 9.05 GB
- Q8_0 size
- 15.58 GB
- Context
- 16k
- Ollama tag
- phi4:14b
- Memory
- 12 GB vram
- Usable for weights
- ~11 GB
- Power draw
- ~170 W
- Best runtime
- Ollama (CUDA) / llama.cpp CUDA
You could also run
Run Phi-4 14B on other hardware
FAQ
Can Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB) run Phi-4 14B?
Yes. Phi-4 14B runs on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB) at Q4_K_M (~10.8 GB of ~11 GB usable).
How much memory does Phi-4 14B need?
It is a tight fit on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB). At Q4_K_M the weights are ~9.05 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~10.8 GB at a 4k context.
What is the best tool to run Phi-4 14B on Windows?
LM Studio for a simple setup; Ollama (CUDA) for the most speed. AMD GPUs run via Vulkan/ROCm at roughly half CUDA throughput. NVIDIA is the smooth path on Windows.
Embed this
[](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-4-14b/nvidia-rtx-3060-12gb) Sources
Weights are measured from GGUF files; KV cache and overhead are computed, so totals can vary ~15% with context and runtime. Any tok/s is a bandwidth estimate. See methodology.