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URL: https://willitrunai.com/can-run/deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-7b-on-tesla-p40-24gb


Can DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B run on Tesla P40 24GB?

YES — Runs Great

B65Good
Estimated from fit model

DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B needs ~8.7 GB VRAM. Tesla P40 24GB has 24.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~48 tok/s.

Runtime: OllamaCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: LowStack: BasicBottleneck: Balanced
Share:

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.

Current mode

Balanced

Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 8.7 GB, 51.9 tok/s, Runs well
8.7 GB required24.0 GB available
36% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

51.9 tok/s

TTFT

3730 ms

Safe context

33K

Memory

8.7 GB / 24.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.3 GB
KV Cache0.9 GB
Runtime1.2 GB
Headroom2.4 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsDeepSeek R1 Distill 7B on Tesla P40 24GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort: def quicksort(arr): if len(arr) <= 1: return arr pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2] left = [x for x in arr if x < pivot] middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot] right = [x for x in arr if x > pivot] return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right) # Example usage numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1] print(quicksort(numbers)) # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10] The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]: """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm. Args: arr: List of integers to sort. Returns: A new sorted list. """ if len(arr) <= 1: return arr pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2] left = [x for x in arr if x < pivot] middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot] right = [x for x in arr if x > pivot] return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right) Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 51.9 tok/s decode · 3.7s TTFT (warm) · 130 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Older PCIe generation

PCIe 3.0 is workable, but it compounds the penalty when you offload heavily or try to scale across multiple cards.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatBRuns well51.9 tok/s2034 ms33K
CodingBRuns well47.8 tok/s4050 ms33K
Agentic CodingBRuns well51.9 tok/s5425 ms33K
ReasoningBRuns well51.9 tok/s4408 ms33K
RAGBRuns well51.9 tok/s6782 ms33K

Quantization options

How DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B (7B params) fits at each quantization level on Tesla P40 24GB (24.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
2.7 GB
LowB61
Q3_K_S
3
3.4 GB
LowB62
NVFP4
4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B on your machine.

Run

ollama run deepseek-r1:7b

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B well

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 5090 32GBBudget pick
32 GB VRAM (+8)1792 GB/s (+1446)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 89%.98 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 89%.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$1,999 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 32GBBest value
32 GB VRAM (+8)896 GB/s (+550)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 89%.98 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 89%.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$2,499 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX 5000 Ada 32GBNVIDIA upgrade
32 GB VRAM (+8)576 GB/s (+230)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 89%.98 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 89%.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$4,000 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

See all results for Tesla P40 24GBSee all hardware for DeepSeek R1 Distill 7B
3.9 GB
Medium
B62
Q4_K_M
4
4.3 GB
MediumB62
Q5_K_M
5
5.0 GB
HighB62
Q6_K
6
5.7 GB
HighB63
Q8_0
8
7.5 GB
Very HighB64
F16Best for your GPU
16
14.3 GB
MaximumB67