CanItRun Logocanitrun.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B vs Qwen3 32B

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

Quick verdict

Qwen3 32B is more hardware-efficient: it needs 23.9 GB at its Q4_K_M build vs 24.6 GB for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B's Q4_K_M, fitting on 74 GPUs natively.

VRAM at each quantization (8k context)

FP32
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
148.0 GB
Qwen3 32B
148.4 GB
BF16
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
75.2 GB
Qwen3 32B
75.0 GB
FP16
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
75.2 GB
Qwen3 32B
75.0 GB
Q8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
41.1 GB
Qwen3 32B
40.5 GB
Q6_K
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
32.3 GB
Qwen3 32B
31.7 GB
Q5_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
28.3 GB
Qwen3 32B
27.7 GB
Q4_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
24.6 GB
Qwen3 32B
23.9 GB
Q3_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
19.9 GB
Qwen3 32B
19.2 GB
Q2_K
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
16.3 GB
Qwen3 32B
15.5 GB
NVFP4
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B
20.6 GB
Qwen3 32B
19.9 GB
QuantDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BQwen3 32BDiff
FP32148.0 GB148.4 GB-0%
BF1675.2 GB75.0 GB+0%
FP1675.2 GB75.0 GB+0%
Q8_041.1 GB40.5 GB+1%
Q6_K32.3 GB31.7 GB+2%
Q5_K_M28.3 GB27.7 GB+2%
Q4_K_M24.6 GB23.9 GB+3%
Q3_K_M19.9 GB19.2 GB+4%
Q2_K16.3 GB15.5 GB+5%
NVFP420.6 GB19.9 GB+4%

Diff is DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B relative to Qwen3 32B. Green = lower VRAM (fits more GPUs).

Model specifications

SpecDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BQwen3 32B
OrgDeepSeekAlibaba
Parameters32.5B32.8B
ArchitectureDenseDense
Context125k tokens128k tokens
Modalitiestexttext
LicenseMITApache 2.0
CommercialYesYes
Released2025-01-202025-04-29
GPUs (native)70 / 11974 / 119

Benchmark scores

BenchmarkDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BQwen3 32B
MMLU-Pro65.065.5
GPQA Diamond62.1N/A
MATH94.3N/A

Green = higher score (better). N/A = not yet available. ~ = inherited from a base model, not independently reported for that release itself.

GPUs that run only DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B(0)

Every GPU that runs DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B also runs Qwen3 32B.

GPUs that run only Qwen3 32B(4)

GPUs that run both natively(70)

Which should you use?

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B if:
  • • You have limited VRAM: it's a smaller model needing 24.6 GB vs 23.9 GB
Choose Qwen3 32B if:
  • • You want maximum capability and have a 24 GB+ GPU
  • • Long context matters: it supports 128k tokens vs 125k
  • • Benchmark quality matters: scores 65.5 vs 65.0 on MMLU-Pro
  • • It's the newer release (2025-04-29 vs 2025-01-20); check the benchmark table above for what actually improved

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Qwen3 32B?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B has 32.5B parameters vs 32.8B for Qwen3 32B, so Qwen3 32B is the larger model. Qwen3 32B is more hardware-efficient, needing 23.9 GB at its Q4_K_M build vs 24.6 GB for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B's Q4_K_M. Qwen3 32B runs on more GPUs natively (74 vs 70). On MMLU-Pro, Qwen3 32B scores higher (65.5 vs 65.0).
How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B need vs Qwen3 32B?
At 8k context, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B needs approximately 24.6 GB of VRAM at its Q4_K_M build, while Qwen3 32B needs 23.9 GB at its Q4_K_M build. At the largest build each ships, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B requires 75.2 GB (FP16) vs 75.0 GB (FP16) for Qwen3 32B.
Can you run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B on the same GPUs as Qwen3 32B?
Yes, 70 GPUs can run both natively in VRAM, including NVIDIA RTX 5090, NVIDIA RTX 4090, NVIDIA RTX 3090. However, no GPU can run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B without also fitting Qwen3 32B, and 4 GPUs can run Qwen3 32B but not DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B.
What is the difference between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B and Qwen3 32B?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B has 32.5B parameters (dense) with a 125k context window. Qwen3 32B has 32.8B parameters (dense) with a 128k context window. Licensing differs: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B is MIT while Qwen3 32B is Apache 2.0.
Which model fits in 24 GB of VRAM, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B or Qwen3 32B?
Neither fits in 24 GB: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B needs 24.6 GB at Q4_K_M and Qwen3 32B needs 23.9 GB at Q4_K_M. Both require at least a 32 GB GPU.
Full DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B page →Full Qwen3 32B page →Check your hardware →