llmrun

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Qwen3 14B

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Qwen3 14B match in llmrun Score, with values of 97.0 versus 97.9; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Qwen3 14B is 2.2× faster on RTX 4090 (~69 vs ~32 tok/s).

Model A · DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
97.0llmrun Score

32.8B · 128K context · MIT · Jan 2025

ChatReasoningFunctions

Model B · Alibaba

Qwen3 14B
97.9llmrun Score

14.8B · 40K context · Apache 2.0 · Apr 2025

ChatFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B if you want…

  • Longer context window

    128K vs 40K tokens

  • Also does reasoning

    Qwen3 14B doesn't list it

Choose Qwen3 14B if you want…

  • Fits a 12 GB GPU

    Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB; DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B needs 13.6 GB at its smallest quant

  • 2.2× faster on RTX 4090

    ~69 vs ~32 tok/s

  • Lighter on memory

    9.5 vs 20.5 GB at Q4_K_M

  • Newer release

    Apr 2025 vs Jan 2025

On your hardware

Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 13.6 GB

Qwen3 14B

IQ2_M · ~32 tok/s

8 GB · up to 16Kfits

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 13.6 GB

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~25 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 16Kfits

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

IQ2_M · ~25 tok/s

15.7 GB · up to 16K

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~31 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 40Kmore headroom

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Q4_K_M · ~32 tok/stight

24.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~69 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 40Kmore headroom

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Q4_K_M · ~57 tok/s

24.3 GB · up to 32K

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~123 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 40Kfaster

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Q4_K_M · ~24 tok/s

24.3 GB · up to 64K

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~53 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 40Kfaster

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Q4_K_M · ~4 tok/s

24.3 GB · up to 16K

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~9 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 40Kfaster

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Q4_K_M · ~19 tok/s

24.3 GB · up to 128K

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~40 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 40Kfaster

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

Q4_K_M · ~19 tok/s

24.3 GB · up to 128K

Qwen3 14B

Q4_K_M · ~40 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 40Kfaster

Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).

llmrun Score

with its 90% range · bars share one scale

Overall

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

97.093–101

Qwen3 14B

97.995–101

Science

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

no data

Qwen3 14B

94.187–101

Reasoning

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

no data

Qwen3 14B

87.879–97

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B · #55 of 92 open models · #13 of 34 that fit 24 GB

Qwen3 14B · #53 of 92 open models · #12 of 34 that fit 24 GB

Benchmarks

3 shared boards: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B leads 1, Qwen3 14B leads 2 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

GPQA Diamond

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

64.1%#38/97 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jan 2025

Qwen3 14B

63.8%#39/97 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

AIME 2024/2025

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

55.6%#41/85 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jan 2025

Qwen3 14B

66.4%#32/85 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Chess Puzzles

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

1.0%#41/67 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jan 2025

Qwen3 14B

4.0%#34/67 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

6 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)

Only DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B (1)

Only Qwen3 14B (5)

VRAM by quantization

Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.

Q2_K

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

14.8 GB12.3 GB file

32K 22.8 GB · 128K 48.6 GB

Qwen3 14B

6.9 GB5.8 GB file

32K 11.9 GB · 128K —

Q3_K_S

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

15.2 GB14.4 GB file

32K 23.2 GB · 128K 49.0 GB

Qwen3 14B

7.1 GB6.7 GB file

32K 12.1 GB · 128K —

Q3_K_M

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

16.8 GB15.9 GB file

32K 24.9 GB · 128K 50.6 GB

Qwen3 14B

7.8 GB7.3 GB file

32K 12.9 GB · 128K —

Q4_0

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

17.2 GB18.7 GB file

32K 25.3 GB · 128K 51.0 GB

Qwen3 14B

8.0 GB8.5 GB file

32K 13.1 GB · 128K —

Q4_K_M

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

20.5 GB19.9 GB file

32K 28.6 GB · 128K 54.3 GB

Qwen3 14B

9.5 GB9.0 GB file

32K 14.5 GB · 128K —

Q5_K_M

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

24.2 GB23.3 GB file

32K 32.2 GB · 128K 58.0 GB

Qwen3 14B

11.2 GB10.5 GB file

32K 16.2 GB · 128K —

Q6_K

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

27.9 GB26.9 GB file

32K 35.9 GB · 128K 61.7 GB

Qwen3 14B

12.8 GB12.1 GB file

32K 17.9 GB · 128K —

Q8_0

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

33.6 GB34.8 GB file

32K 41.7 GB · 128K 67.4 GB

Qwen3 14B

15.4 GB15.7 GB file

32K 20.4 GB · 128K —

19 more quants

IQ2_XXS

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

9.9 GB9.0 GB file

32K 17.9 GB · 128K 43.7 GB

Qwen3 14B

4.7 GB4.5 GB file

32K 9.7 GB · 128K —

IQ2_XS

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

10.7 GB10.0 GB file

32K 18.7 GB · 128K 44.5 GB

Qwen3 14B

5.1 GB4.7 GB file

32K 10.1 GB · 128K —

IQ2_S

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

11.1 GB10.4 GB file

32K 19.1 GB · 128K 44.9 GB

Qwen3 14B

5.3 GB5.0 GB file

32K 10.3 GB · 128K —

IQ2_M

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

11.9 GB11.3 GB file

32K 19.9 GB · 128K 45.7 GB

Qwen3 14B

5.6 GB5.4 GB file

32K 10.7 GB · 128K —

IQ3_XXS

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

13.5 GB12.8 GB file

32K 21.6 GB · 128K 47.4 GB

Qwen3 14B

6.4 GB6.0 GB file

32K 11.4 GB · 128K —

Q2_K_S

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

13.9 GB11.5 GB file

32K 22.0 GB · 128K 47.8 GB

Qwen3 14B

6.5 GB5.4 GB file

32K 11.6 GB · 128K —

IQ3_XS

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

14.4 GB13.7 GB file

32K 22.4 GB · 128K 48.2 GB

Qwen3 14B

6.7 GB6.4 GB file

32K 11.8 GB · 128K —

IQ3_S

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

14.8 GB14.4 GB file

32K 22.8 GB · 128K 48.6 GB

Qwen3 14B

6.9 GB6.7 GB file

32K 11.9 GB · 128K —

IQ3_M

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

15.6 GB14.8 GB file

32K 23.6 GB · 128K 49.4 GB

Qwen3 14B

7.3 GB6.9 GB file

32K 12.3 GB · 128K —

Q3_K_L

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

17.6 GB17.2 GB file

32K 25.7 GB · 128K 51.5 GB

Qwen3 14B

8.2 GB7.9 GB file

32K 13.2 GB · 128K —

IQ4_XS

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

18.5 GB17.7 GB file

32K 26.5 GB · 128K 52.3 GB

Qwen3 14B

8.6 GB8.1 GB file

32K 13.6 GB · 128K —

IQ4_NL

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

19.3 GB18.7 GB file

32K 27.3 GB · 128K 53.1 GB

Qwen3 14B

8.9 GB8.5 GB file

32K 14.0 GB · 128K —

Q4_1

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

19.3 GB20.6 GB file

32K 27.3 GB · 128K 53.1 GB

Qwen3 14B

8.9 GB9.4 GB file

32K 14.0 GB · 128K —

Q4_K_S

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

19.3 GB18.8 GB file

32K 27.3 GB · 128K 53.1 GB

Qwen3 14B

8.9 GB8.6 GB file

32K 14.0 GB · 128K —

Q4_K_L

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

20.9 GB20.4 GB file

32K 29.0 GB · 128K 54.7 GB

Qwen3 14B

9.7 GB9.6 GB file

32K 14.7 GB · 128K —

Q5_0

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

21.3 GB22.6 GB file

32K 29.4 GB · 128K 55.1 GB

Qwen3 14B

9.9 GB10.3 GB file

32K 14.9 GB · 128K —

Q5_K_S

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

23.4 GB22.6 GB file

32K 31.4 GB · 128K 57.2 GB

Qwen3 14B

10.8 GB10.3 GB file

32K 15.8 GB · 128K —

Q5_K_L

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

24.6 GB23.7 GB file

32K 32.6 GB · 128K 58.4 GB

Qwen3 14B

11.3 GB11.0 GB file

32K 16.4 GB · 128K —

BF16

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B

66.4 GB65.5 GB file

32K 74.4 GB · 128K 100 GB

Qwen3 14B

30.2 GB29.5 GB file

32K 35.2 GB · 128K —

How to run each

Specifications

Specifications of DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Qwen3 14B
SpecDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BQwen3 14B
PublisherDeepSeekAlibaba
Parameters32.8B14.8B
ArchitectureQwen2ForCausalLMQwen3ForCausalLM
Context128K tokens40K tokens
ModalitiesChat, Reasoning, Function-callingChat, Function-calling
LicenseMITApache 2.0
ReleasedJan 2025Apr 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Qwen3 14B?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Qwen3 14B match in llmrun Score, with values of 97.0 versus 97.9; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Qwen3 14B is 2.2× faster on RTX 4090 (~69 vs ~32 tok/s). Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B for longer context window and also does reasoning; choose Qwen3 14B for fits a 12 GB GPU and 2.2× faster on RTX 4090.

Which needs less VRAM, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Qwen3 14B?

At Q4_K_M, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B requires 20.5 GB while Qwen3 14B needs 9.5 GB, making Qwen3 14B the easier model to run on your local setup.

Which is faster on RTX 4090?

Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 32 tok/s for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B (Q4_K_M) and 69 tok/s for Qwen3 14B (Q4_K_M), so Qwen3 14B is faster. Estimates, ±20%.

Can I run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Qwen3 14B on a 16 GB GPU?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B fits at IQ2_M; Qwen3 14B fits at Q4_K_M.

Which has a longer context window, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Qwen3 14B?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B supports 131,072 tokens and Qwen3 14B supports 40,960 tokens.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Qwen3 14B — VRAM & GPU Comparison | llmrun