DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B on NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (48 GB)

Can the NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (48 GB) run DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B?

Yes, but slowly (over GPU memory limit)

Slow (over GPU memory limit). At Q2_K it needs about 34.1 GB of 32.2 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 7.3 tok/s.

Best quant: Q2_K
Generation speed: 7.3 tok/s
Prompt processing: 294 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 3.5 s
Largest safe context: 2K

Best app to run it on the NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (48 GB)

On Linux

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B in LM Studio

Ollama Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
llama.cpp Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B

Recommended for the NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (48 GB): Q2_K. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run deepseek-r1:70b

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

Download the Q2_K file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF:Q2_K

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from DeepSeek, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from DeepSeek. The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1 (opens in a new tab)

The R1 repo covers the distilled models too.

git clone https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q2_K, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Slowover GPU memory limit: How well it runs on the NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (48 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	22.7 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.	10.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	6.4 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	15.0 / 15
Match score	54.1 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (48 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	34.1 GB	32.2 GB	7.3 tok/s	Slowover GPU memory limit	50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	40.4 GB	32.2 GB	—	Won't run	60Good quality (B) · 60 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 8/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	48.9 GB	32.2 GB	—	Won't run	68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	55.9 GB	32.2 GB	—	Won't run	69Good quality (B) · 69 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	63.7 GB	32.2 GB	—	Won't run	71Great quality (A) · 71 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	80.6 GB	32.2 GB	—	Won't run	72Great quality (A) · 72 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	147 GB	32.2 GB	—	Won't run	72Great quality (A) · 72 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 81/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q4_K_M · 31.2 tok/s · Runs great
60Good quality (B) · 60 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (64 GB) Q3_K_M · 10.6 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M2 Ultra (192 GB) Q4_K_M · 12.0 tok/s · Runs well
68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB) Q4_K_M · 12.3 tok/s · Runs well
60Good quality (B) · 60 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (128 GB) Q3_K_M · 10.6 tok/s · Runs well
68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB) Q4_K_M · 12.3 tok/s · Runs well

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.