DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Side-by-side comparison of VRAM requirements, quantization, context length, and hardware compatibility.
Specifications
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B | Qwen3 30B A3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 1.8B | 30.5B |
| Context | 131K | 41K |
| Architecture | Qwen2ForCausalLM | Qwen3MoeForCausalLM |
| License | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
| Downloads | 788.2K | 2.1M |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Jul 2025 |
VRAM by Quantization: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Qwen3 30B A3B
| Quantization | Bits | DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B VRAM | Qwen3 30B A3B VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | 1.1 GB | 13.4 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | 1.2 GB | 15.3 GB |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | 1.1 GB | 13.8 GB |
| Q4_0 | 4.00 | — | 15.7 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | 1.4 GB | 18.7 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | 1.6 GB | 22.1 GB |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | 1.8 GB | 25.6 GB |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | 2.1 GB | 30.9 GB |
Verdict
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B needs less VRAM at Q4_K_M (1.4 GB vs 18.7 GB), so it fits on smaller GPUs. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports a longer context window (131K tokens). Qwen3 30B A3B is the more widely downloaded of the two.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which needs less VRAM, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Qwen3 30B A3B?
At Q4_K_M, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B needs 1.4 GB and Qwen3 30B A3B needs 18.7 GB, so DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is the lighter option to run locally.
- Which has a longer context window, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Qwen3 30B A3B?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports 131,072 tokens and Qwen3 30B A3B supports 40,960 tokens.
- What is the difference between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Qwen3 30B A3B?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is a 1.8B model from DeepSeek (Qwen family), while Qwen3 30B A3B is a 30.5B model from Alibaba (Qwen family). Compare their VRAM requirements above to see which fits your GPU or Mac.