Can DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B run on Radeon RX 7900M 16GB?

YES — Runs Great

C54Usable

○Estimated from fit model

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B needs ~12.7 GB VRAM. Radeon RX 7900M 16GB has 16.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~40 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: MediumStack: StandardBottleneck: Balanced

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) — 12.7 GB, 39.8 tok/s, Runs well

12.7 GB required16.0 GB available

79% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

39.8 tok/s

TTFT

4865 ms

Safe context

48K

Memory

12.7 GB / 16.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights8.5 GB

KV Cache1.6 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom1.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on Radeon RX 7900M 16GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Solve: If a train travels at 60 mph for 2.5 hours, how far does it go?
Let me work through this step by step.

Given information:
 - Speed = 60 mph (miles per hour)
 - Time = 2.5 hours

Formula: Distance = Speed x Time

Calculation:
 Distance = 60 mph x 2.5 h
 = 150 miles

The train travels 150 miles.

Double-check: at 60 mph the train covers 60 miles each hour. In half an hour it covers 30 miles. So in 2.5 hours: 60 + 60 + 30 = 150 miles. Confirmed.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>What if the train stops for 20 minutes halfway?
The stop doesn't change the total distance covered while moving, but it affects total trip time.

Breakdown:
 - First half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles
 - Stop: 20 minutes (no distance)
 - Second half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles

Total distance: 150 miles (same)
Total time: 2.5 h + 0.33 h = 2.83 hours
Average speed: 150 / 2.83 = 53 mph

The distance stays the same but average speed drops to 53 mph because of the stop.
Estimated: 39.8 tok/s decode · 4.9s TTFT (warm) · 100 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

No major red flags

This recommendation has enough memory headroom and acceptable estimated speed for the selected workload.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	C	Runs well	39.8 tok/s	2654 ms	48K
Coding	C	Runs well	39.8 tok/s	4865 ms	48K
Agentic Coding	C	Tight fit	39.8 tok/s	7076 ms	48K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	39.8 tok/s	5750 ms	48K
RAG	C	Tight fit	39.8 tok/s	8846 ms	48K

Quantization options

How DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B (14B params) fits at each quantization level on Radeon RX 7900M 16GB (16.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	5.5 GB	Low	C49
Q3_K_S	3	6.9 GB	Low	C51
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-unsloth--deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-14b-gguf && lms server start

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B well

RX 7900 XT 20GBBudget pick

20 GB VRAM (+4)800 GB/s (+224)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 41%.56.2 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 41%.

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

~$899 MSRP

👁 NVIDIA
RTX A4500 20GBBest value

20 GB VRAM (+4)640 GB/s (+64)

Raises estimated decode speed by about 47%.58.5 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 47%.