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Can the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB run Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B?

53Fair quality (C) · 53 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs well (offloads to RAM)

Runs well (offloads to RAM). At Q2_K it needs about 13.9 GB of 12.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 90.0 tok/s.

Best quant
Q2_K
Generation speed
90.0 tok/s
Prompt processing
2,340 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
0.4 s
Largest safe context
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Best app to run it on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

On Windows

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

  • Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
  • Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B in LM Studio

  • Ollama Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
  • llama.cpp Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.

On Linux

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

  • Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
  • Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B in LM Studio

  • Ollama Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
  • llama.cpp Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.

Want an agent? Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B supports tool use, so you can pair a llama.cpp or MLX LM server with one of these. Apps that run on this computer come first.

Coding agents

Personal assistants

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run nemotron-3-nano:30b

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

huggingface.co/ggml-org/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/ggml-org/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from NVIDIA, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/nvidia/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B-BF16 (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from NVIDIA. The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/NVIDIA-NeMo/Nemotron (opens in a new tab)

NVIDIA’s Nemotron repo with recipes for the whole family.

git clone https://github.com/NVIDIA-NeMo/Nemotron

Links checked 3 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 53Fair quality (C) · 53 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at Q2_K, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs welloffloads to RAM
How well it runs on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB: speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.24.3 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when everything sits in GPU memory; fewer when part spills to system RAM.10.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.15.0 / 15
Match score64.3 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 13.9 GB 12.0 GB 90.0 tok/s Runs welloffloads to RAM 53Fair quality (C) · 53 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 16.7 GB 12.0 GB 56.8 tok/s Slowheavy RAM offload 64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 20.5 GB 12.0 GB 37.5 tok/s Slowheavy RAM offload 73Great quality (A) · 73 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 23.7 GB 12.0 GB 28.5 tok/s Slowheavy RAM offload 74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 65/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 27.1 GB 12.0 GB 22.5 tok/s Slowheavy RAM offload 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 34.7 GB 12.0 GB — Won't run 77Great quality (A) · 77 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 10/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
F16 64.4 GB 12.0 GB — Won't run 77Great quality (A) · 77 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 10/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

Quick answers

How much memory does Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B need on the RTX 3060 12GB?

At Q2_K it needs about 13.9 GB. The RTX 3060 12GB has 12.0 GB usable.

How fast is Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B on the RTX 3060 12GB?

About 90.0 tok/s at Q2_K, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B should I use on the RTX 3060 12GB?

Q2_K. Of the versions that fit, it is the one that runs best; when two run equally well, the check prefers the higher-rated one.

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.

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