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DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct

Side-by-side VRAM requirements, benchmark scores, and GPU compatibility for local AI inference.

Quick verdict

Both models need similar VRAM at Q4_K_M (42.2 GB). The choice comes down to benchmarks and architecture.

VRAM at each quantization (8k context)

QuantDeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70BLlama 3.3 70B InstructDiff
FP16159.8 GB159.8 GB+0%
Q881.4 GB81.4 GB+0%
Q6_K61.8 GB61.8 GB+0%
Q5_K_M52.0 GB52.0 GB+0%
Q4_K_M42.2 GB42.2 GB+0%
Q3_K_M34.4 GB34.4 GB+0%
Q2_K26.5 GB26.5 GB+0%

Diff is DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B relative to Llama 3.3 70B Instruct. Green = lower VRAM (fits more GPUs).

Model specifications

SpecDeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct
OrgDeepSeekMeta
Parameters70B70B
ArchitectureDenseDense
Context125k tokens125k tokens
Modalitiestexttext
LicenseMITLlama 3.3 Community
CommercialYesYes
Released2025-01-202024-12-06
GPUs (native)38 / 6738 / 67

Benchmark scores

BenchmarkDeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct
MMLU-Pro70.068.9
GPQA65.250.5
MATH94.577.0
HumanEval88.888.4

Green = higher score (better). — = not yet available.

GPUs that run only DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B(0)

Every GPU that runs DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B also runs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct.

GPUs that run only Llama 3.3 70B Instruct(0)

Every GPU that runs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct also runs DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B.

GPUs that run both natively(38)

Which should you use?

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B if:
  • • Benchmark quality matters — scores 70.0 vs 68.9 on MMLU-Pro
  • • You need chain-of-thought reasoning
Choose Llama 3.3 70B Instruct if:

    Frequently asked questions

    Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B or Llama 3.3 70B Instruct?
    On MMLU-Pro, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B scores higher (70.0 vs 68.9).
    How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B need vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct?
    At Q4_K_M quantization with 8k context, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B needs approximately 42.2 GB of VRAM, while Llama 3.3 70B Instruct needs 42.2 GB. At FP16, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B requires 159.8 GB vs 159.8 GB for Llama 3.3 70B Instruct.
    Can you run DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B on the same GPUs as Llama 3.3 70B Instruct?
    Yes, 38 GPUs can run both natively in VRAM, including NVIDIA RTX 5090, NVIDIA H100 80GB, NVIDIA A100 80GB. However, no GPU can run DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B without also fitting Llama 3.3 70B Instruct, and no GPU can run Llama 3.3 70B Instruct without also fitting DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B.
    What is the difference between DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B and Llama 3.3 70B Instruct?
    DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B has 70B parameters (dense) with a 125k context window. Llama 3.3 70B Instruct has 70B parameters (dense) with a 125k context window. Licensing differs: DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B is MIT while Llama 3.3 70B Instruct is Llama 3.3 Community.
    Which model fits in 24 GB of VRAM, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B or Llama 3.3 70B Instruct?
    Neither fits in 24 GB at Q4_K_M — DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B needs 42.2 GB and Llama 3.3 70B Instruct needs 42.2 GB. Both require at least a 48 GB GPU.
    Full DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B page →Full Llama 3.3 70B Instruct page →Check your hardware →