text model · Qwen3 · Windows
Can I run Qwen3 8B on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB)?
Yes. Qwen3 8B runs on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB) at Q4_K_M (~6.5 GB of ~7 GB usable).
Fits at Q4_K_M (~6.5 GB of ~7 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 Ti (8GB) leaves ~0.5 GB of headroom.
- Q4_K_M needed
- ~6.5 GB
- Usable on device
- ~7 GB
- Device memory
- 8 GB
- Best quant
- Q4_K_M
Which quant fits
Running cost · estimate
- Power draw
- ~200 W
- Electricity / 1M tokens
- ~$0.14
- Pays for itself after
- ~1,108M tok
At ~$0.15/kWh and the estimated ~58 tok/s, a million generated tokens costs about $0.14 in electricity. Versus a hosted API at ~$0.5 per million tokens, the ~$399 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB) pays for itself after roughly 1,108 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 qwen3:8b llama-cli -hf Qwen/Qwen3-8B-GGUF:Q4_K_M lms get Qwen/Qwen3-8B-GGUF - Parameters
- 8B
- Q4_K_M size
- 5.03 GB
- Q8_0 size
- 8.71 GB
- Context
- 32k
- Ollama tag
- qwen3:8b
- Memory
- 8 GB vram
- Usable for weights
- ~7 GB
- Power draw
- ~200 W
- Best runtime
- Ollama (CUDA) / llama.cpp CUDA
You could also run
Run Qwen3 8B on other hardware
FAQ
Can Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB) run Qwen3 8B?
Yes. Qwen3 8B runs on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB) at Q4_K_M (~6.5 GB of ~7 GB usable).
How much memory does Qwen3 8B need?
It is a tight fit on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB). At Q4_K_M the weights are ~5.03 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~6.5 GB at a 4k context.
What is the best tool to run Qwen3 8B 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
A live badge for your model card or README, updated as the data is. [](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/qwen3-8b/nvidia-rtx-3060-ti-8gb) 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.