StarCoder2 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 · 12GB VRAM

✅ Runs (tight) — StarCoder2 15B @ Q4_K_M
StarCoder2 15B at Q4_K_M needs ~10.1 GB (weights 9.0 GB + KV 640 MB + overhead 512 MB @ 8K ctx) of your 10.8 GB usable VRAM — fits, but little headroom — close other apps or trim context. Expect ~14–25 tok/s (usable).
context @ Q4_K_M: runs to its full 16K
quantneedsspeed
~ Q8_017.2 GB—
~ Q5_K_M11.7 GB~4–7 tok/s (slow)
✓ Q4_K_M10.1 GB~14–25 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q3_K_M8.4 GB~18–30 tok/s (fast)
$runlocal install starcoder2:15b
⚠ NVIDIA support is best-effort in v0.1 — verify before relying on it.
runlocal verdict card
download card share on x share on reddit drop it in your model-drop post
StarCoder2: Runs (tight)
for your own README — links back here

Same model, other machines: Apple M1 · Apple M1 Pro · Apple M2 · Apple M3 Pro · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M4 Pro

Also runs on a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060: Qwen3 · DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen2.5 · Llama 3.1 · Gemma 3

Best models for a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 · 12GB VRAM →

Architecturally similar

These share StarCoder2's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 · 12GB VRAM too:

modelsharesverdict here
Qwen2.5-Coder 2kv/128hd4kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)
Yi 1.5 4kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B 4kv/128hd 🐢 CPU-only (slow)
SmolLM3 3B 4kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably
Yi-Coder 9B 4kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)

Check any combo yourself: open the checker →