DeepSeek R1 32B vs 70B — which distill should you run? (2026)

The 70B is bigger, but the 32B fits a single 24GB card and is faster. For most home setups the smaller distill is actually the smarter choice.…

Aliteq
Lena Fischer · AI & Local Compute Editor

32B vs 70B at a glance

32B: single 24GB card (~20GB at Q4), 28-45 tok/s. Beats o1-mini.

32B vs 70B at a glance

70B: 40GB+ — dual 24GB or Mac 64GB+; slower.

32B vs 70B at a glance

Quality gap is small on the benchmarks that matter for most work.

32B vs 70B at a glance

32B wins on practicality — faster, simpler, one card, cheaper.

32B vs 70B at a glance

70B wins only if you already have the big-memory hardware and want the last few %.

32B vs 70B at a glance

Verdict for most home labs: the 32B.

Aliteq

Read the full story

DeepSeek R1 32B vs 70B — which distill should you run? (2026)

 Read the full story on Aliteq