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Best GPUs for Reasoning LLMs

Our catalog tracks 12 reasoning LLMs (3.8B–1058.1 parameters). For each, the table shows the cheapest retail GPU that fully fits it at Q4 / 8K context and the fastest retail GPU, with decode tok/s. Fit means weights + KV cache + 1 GB runtime overhead within 95% of VRAM — not weights alone. 3 of them exceed every retail GPU we track and are marked accordingly. Methodology.

#ModelParamsQ4/8K needs (GB)Best value GPU (fits)Fastest retail GPUBuy
1Phi-4-mini-reasoning3.8B3.85Arc B570 10GB ≈63.6 tok/s est.RTX 5090 32GB ≈300.1 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
2Qwen3-4B-Thinking-25074.0B4.0Arc B570 10GB ≈60.5 tok/s est.RTX 5090 32GB ≈285.1 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
3DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B7.6B6.7Arc B570 10GB ≈31.8 tok/s est.RTX 5090 32GB ≈150.0 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
4DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B8.2B7.15Arc B570 10GB ≈29.5 tok/s est.RTX 5090 32GB ≈139.1 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
5Phi-4-reasoning14.7B12.03RX 7600 XT 16GB ≈12.5 tok/s est.RTX 5090 32GB ≈77.6 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
6DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-14B14.8B12.1RX 7600 XT 16GB ≈12.4 tok/s est.RTX 4090 24GB ≈92.5 tok/s measuredSearch Amazon (affiliate)
7Magistral-Small-250924.0B19.0RX 7900 XT 20GB ≈21.2 tok/s est.RTX 5090 32GB ≈47.5 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
8DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B32.8B25.6Mac mini M4 32GB ≈2.3 tok/s est.RTX 5090 32GB ≈34.8 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
9DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B70.6B53.95Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB ≈2.5 tok/s est.Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB ≈7.4 tok/s est.Search Amazon (affiliate)
10MiniMax-M1456.1B MoE 45.9B act.261.04No retail GPU fits
11DeepSeek-R1684.5B MoE 37B act.384.88No retail GPU fits
12Kimi-K2-Thinking1058.1B MoE 32B act.589.36No retail GPU fits

est. = bandwidth-based estimate; measured = curated real benchmark that overrides the estimate. GPU names link to the full fit check (4K/8K/32K fit table + VRAM breakdown). MSRP is the launch list price, not live retail — Amazon prices change; click a Buy link for the current price. Models marked 'No retail GPU fits' need more VRAM than any retail card in our catalog (up to 192 GB) — see the model page for datacenter-class options.

Popular fit checks

Compare the picks

Arc B570 10GB vs RTX 5090 32GB · RTX 5090 32GB vs RX 7600 XT 16GB · Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB vs RTX 5090 32GB · Arc B570 10GB vs RX 7600 XT 16GB · Arc B570 10GB vs Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB · Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB vs RX 7600 XT 16GB

More lists: 7B-class models · 13B-class models · 30B-class models · 70B+ models · Under $500 · Under $1,000 · Under $2,000 · 8 GB VRAM · 12 GB VRAM · 16 GB VRAM · 24 GB VRAM · For Qwen3 · For DeepSeek · For Llama · For Gemma · For GLM · For coding · MoE picks