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DeepSeek R1 Distill (8B)

DeepSeek's reasoning model distilled to 8B. Shows its thought process step-by-step. Mind-blowing for logic.

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Parameters
8B
Minimum RAM
8 GB
Model size
5.5 GB
Quantization
Q5_K_M

Can DeepSeek R1 Distill (8B) run locally?

DeepSeek R1 Distill (8B) is best suited for entry-level laptops and desktops. LocalClaw recommends Q5_K_M as the default quantization, with at least 8 GB RAM.

Search term for LM Studio or compatible runtimes: deepseek-r1-distill-llama-8b

Hugging Face repository: lmstudio-community/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B-GGUF

chatreasoningstandard

Strengths

  • Amazing reasoning for 8B
  • Shows chain-of-thought process
  • MIT license
  • Runs on 8GB RAM

Limitations

  • Verbose thinking tokens
  • Distilled — not as strong as full R1
  • Can overthink simple tasks

Best use cases

  • Math reasoning
  • Logic puzzles
  • Step-by-step explanations
  • Education
  • Analysis

Benchmarks

Speed: 7/10

Quality: 7/10

Coding: 7/10

Reasoning: 9/10

Technical details

Developer: DeepSeek AI

License: MIT

Context window: 131,072 tokens

Architecture: Transformer distilled from DeepSeek-R1 (Llama 3.1 8B base)

Released: 2025-01

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