NVIDIA · Ampere

Best AI Models for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU (6 GB)

Runs only small models well; 7–9B only just fits.

6 GB GDDR6336 GB/s26 TFLOPS FP16115 WAmpere 2021

Laptop RTX 3060 has 6 GB (desktop has 12 GB), so ~7B Q4 with moderate context is the practical ceiling. Real speed depends on the chassis power limit (60-115 W).

What LLMs can the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU run?

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 67.0 t/s	67.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Gemma 3 4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB · 76.9 t/s	76.9 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB
3	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 63.7 t/s	63.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB
4	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 73.8 t/s	73.8 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
5	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 115 t/s	115 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Reasoning Score	Quant · VRAM
1	Gemma 3 4B ITGoogleHow to run → Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB · 76.9 t/s	76.9 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB
2	Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 67.0 t/s	67.0 tok/s	overall	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
3	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 63.7 t/s	63.7 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB
4	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 73.8 t/s	73.8 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
5	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 115 t/s	115 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 67.0 t/s	67.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 63.7 t/s	63.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB
3	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 73.8 t/s	73.8 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
4	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 115 t/s	115 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB
5	LFM3 1.7BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.1 GB · 152 t/s	152 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.1 GB

#	Model	Speed ↓	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 67.0 t/s	67.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Ling 3.0 TinyInclusion AI Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB · 179 t/s	179 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB
3	MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB · 115 t/s	115 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.5 GB
4	Spark X2.6 4BXHToken Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB · 73.8 t/s	73.8 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 4.3 GB
5	Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 63.7 t/s	63.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · VRAM
1	Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 67.0 t/s	67.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
2	Gemma 3 4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB · 76.9 t/s	76.9 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB
3	LFM3 Omni 2BLiquid AI Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB · 129 t/s	129 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.4 GB
4	MiniCPM V 4.7 1BOpenBMB Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB · 171 t/s	171 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 1.6 GB
5	Cosmos Reason2 2BNVIDIA Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB · 136 t/s	136 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.5 GB

See all 193 models on the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU →Best quant that fits · speeds estimated on this card

About the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU

The RTX 3060 Laptop GPU runs only small models well. Ampere generation, released 2021.

GenerationAmperereleased 2021

RTX 3060 Laptop GPU strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Runs 7–9B models: Qwen3.5 9B at 39.6 tok/s in 5.8 GB
Low power draw: 115 W board power; a 250 W PSU is enough

Weaknesses

14B models don't fit: Qwen3 14B needs 11.9 GB at Q4 vs 6 GB here
Little room for context: Qwen3.5 9B uses 5.8 of 6 GB, 0.2 GB left
No FP8 or NVFP4: Ampere predates both; use GGUF, AWQ or GPTQ builds

Similar GPUs

Cards people weigh against the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, each with the one reason it is worth a look.

2 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 4060NVIDIA · 8 GB · Ada Lovelace

▲ 2 GB$520rent $0.08/hr27.8 tok/s

2 GB more for bigger modelsA750Intel · 8 GB · Alchemist

▲ 2 GB$28940.3 tok/s

Best value near the RTX 3060 Laptop GPURTX 5060NVIDIA · 8 GB · Blackwell

▲ 2 GB$46045.8 tok/s

2 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 3070 TiNVIDIA · 8 GB · Ampere

▲ 2 GB$599rent $0.24/hr62.2 tok/s

5 GB more for bigger modelsRTX 2080 TiNVIDIA · 11 GB · Turing

▲ 5 GB$999rent $0.09/hr63.0 tok/s

More efficient per wattRTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPUNVIDIA · 12 GB · Blackwell

▲ 6 GB68.7 tok/s

RTX 3060 Laptop GPU tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (336 GB/s). Grey rows need more than 6 GB.

9BQwen3.5 9B · Q3_K_L · 5.8 GB tight · Q3_K_L
39.6tok/s
14BQwen3 14B · not at 4-bit
needs 11.9 GB
27–31BQwen3.8 27B · not at 4-bit
needs 17.9 GB
35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · not at 4-bit
needs 22.0 GB
70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct · not at 4-bit
needs 51.3 GB
120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · not at 4-bit
needs 70.8 GB

Estimated speeds: Q4_K_M, 4K context, one user. How we estimate

All 738 models on the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU

Featured only

Best quant that fits, ordered by llmrun Score. Fit grades how well it runs here, S best. How ranking works

LLM models compatible with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
Model	Quant	VRAM	Speed	Context	Fit
Tiny GPT2LMHeadModel412008Chat Q4_K_M·21840.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.0 GB0%	21840.0 t/s	1K	S100, Runs great
Tiny GPTNeoXForCausalLM806624Chat Q4_K_M·728.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.3 GB5%	728.0 t/s	2K	S100, Runs great
Llama 3.2 1B Instruct1.2BChatFunctions Q4_K_M·266.3 t/s	Q4_K_M	2.3 GB39%	266.3 t/s	131K	S100, Runs great
Tiny MistralForCausalLM 0.2515112Chat Q4_K_M·728.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.5 GB8%	728.0 t/s	33K	S100, Runs great
Qwen3 4B Base Dapo V44.0BChat Q4_K_M·75.3 t/s	Q4_K_M	4.2 GB70%	75.3 t/s	33K	S86, Runs great
Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking12.1BChatFunctions IQ3_M·145.0 t/s	IQ3_M	5.9 GB99%	145.0 t/s	131K	C44, Usable
Tiny MistralForCausalLM 0.1513960Chat Q4_K_M·728.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.5 GB8%	728.0 t/s	33K	S100, Runs great
Sarashina2.2 3B Instruct v0.13.4BChat Q4_K_M·82.4 t/s	Q4_K_M	3.7 GB61%	82.4 t/s	8K	S88, Runs great
Tiny GemmaForCausalLM2MChat Q4_K_M·728.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.4 GB7%	728.0 t/s	8K	S100, Runs great
Tiny LlamaForCausalLM 3.12MChatFunctions Q4_K_M·728.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.6 GB9%	728.0 t/s	131K	S100, Runs great
Tiny LlamaForCausalLM 32MChat Q4_K_M·728.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.4 GB7%	728.0 t/s	8K	S100, Runs great
Tiny FalconMambaForCausalLM1MChat BF16·21840.0 t/s	BF16	0.2 GB4%	21840.0 t/s	—	S100, Runs great
MedScholar 1.5B1.5BChat Q4_K_M·170.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	1.7 GB28%	170.6 t/s	33K	S98, Runs great
Qwen2.5 1.5B Instruct1.5BChatFunctions Q4_K_M·170.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	1.7 GB28%	170.6 t/s	33K	S98, Runs great
Dots.ocr3.0BVision Q4_K_M·100.2 t/s	Q4_K_M	2.6 GB43%	100.2 t/s	131K	S91, Runs great

RTX 3060 Laptop GPU specs, power and PSU

Specs

Architecture: Ampere
VRAM: 6 GB GDDR6
Memory bandwidth: 336.0 GB/s
FP16 (dense): 26.16 TFLOPS
CUDA cores: 3,840
Tensor cores: 120
Compute capability: 8.6
TDP: 115 W
Released: 2021-01-26

RTX 3060 Laptop GPU FAQ

What is the largest model the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU can run?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (7.6B) is the largest at 4-bit or better: at Q4_K_M it uses 5.8 GB of 6 GB, and runs at about 43.8 tok/s. At 3-bit, a bigger model fits too: Gemma 2 9B IT (9.2B) at IQ3_M, 5.7 GB.

Can the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU run Qwen3.5 4B?

Yes. Qwen3.5 4B fits at Q4_K_M, using 3.4 GB of 6 GB, and it is the best model that runs well on this card.

Can the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU run 14B models?

No. Qwen3 14B needs 11.9 GB at Q4, more than the 6 GB on this card.

How many tokens per second does the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU give?

About 67.0 tok/s on Qwen3.5 4B at Q4_K_M, with the first token after 3.2 s on a 4K-token prompt.

What power supply does the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU need?

Plan a 250 W PSU (2× the 115 W TDP).

Is renting cheaper than buying an RTX 3060 Laptop GPU?

An RTX 3080 (10 GB) rents from $0.11/hr. With regular daily use, owning pays off.

Best coding LLMs 8 GB VRAM GPUs with 6 GB or more RTX 3080 Ti RTX 3080 12GB RTX 3080