Can I run it?

Can I run Phi 4 mini instruct on GeForce RTX 3060 12GB?

Runs

Runs fully on your GeForce RTX 3060 12GB at BF16, 8K context, about 23–31 tok/s. Weights 7.15 GB plus 1.00 GB of KV cache — 8.52 GB of 10.9 GB usable. Up to 16K context still fits.

Phi 4 mini instruct details · GeForce RTX 3060 12GB page · How this estimate is made

Run commands

llama-server -hf unsloth/Phi-4-mini-instruct-GGUF:BF16 -c 8192 -ngl 32

ollama run phi

lms get unsloth/Phi-4-mini-instruct-GGUF
# Then load quant BF16

Assumptions

• Estimate, not a benchmark. Decode speed uses a memory-bandwidth model at 55–75% of peak.
• KV cache is FP16. Engine overhead assumes llama.cpp (0.3 GB + 1% of the weights). Ollama is closer to 0.9 GB + 3%, LM Studio closer to 1 GB + 3%.
• BF16 size is the real GGUF file size from Hugging Face.
• 0.5 GB is reserved because this GPU also drives a display, then 5% of the rest is left free.
• Speed is quoted at 8K context, not at the maximum context that still fits.

Larger models that also fit

• Can I run Qwen3.8 27B on GeForce RTX 3060 12GB? — Tight fit, UD-Q2_K_XL, 19–26 tok/s
• Can I run gemma 4 12b it on GeForce RTX 3060 12GB? — Tight fit, Q6_K, 15–21 tok/s
• Can I run Qwen3.5 9B on GeForce RTX 3060 12GB? — Tight fit, Q8_0, 20–28 tok/s

Updated 2026-10-17. Profile on this page is the device default plus 32 GB of DDR5-5600 system RAM.