RTX 3060 12GB gets local model picks

The real story here is not a single "best" model, but the ceiling of a 12GB card: enough for useful local inference, not enough to make big-model envy disappear. The thread reflects the standard LocalLLaMA tradeoff matrix: quality, speed, and context length all fight each other once you leave the 7B-14B zone.

• –7B-9B instruction-tuned models are the safest default if you want speed and responsiveness on one 3060
• –12B-14B quants are the better quality play, especially with 32GB RAM available for offload and larger contexts
• –Coding-focused users will get more mileage from Qwen-style or Mistral-style variants than from older general-purpose chat models
• –Bigger MoE or 20B+ setups become practical only if you are comfortable leaning on system RAM, CPU offload, or adding a second GPU
• –The most useful "upgrade" for this setup is often not a new model, but picking the right quantization and runtime