Best local AI models for 12GB VRAM
Ranked by what actually fits at 32K context, computed from real file bytes.
A 12GB card gives you about 11.16 GiB to work with after driver overhead. 1 indexed models fit at 32K context — the largest being HunyuanImage-2.1 at 17.5B parameters in Q3_K_L.
From the file· fit from summed bytesFrom the file· KV per layer
Fits in 12GB at 32K context
largest quantization that fits, per model
| Model | Modality | Best quant | Params○ | Total◐ | Headroom◐ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HunyuanImage-2.1 | image generation | Q3_K_L | 17.5B | 10.00 GiB | 1.16 GiB |
This page models a generic 12GB accelerator, so it answers what fits rather than how fast it runs. For tokens per second you need a specific card — pick one from hardware, where bandwidth is known.