meta:
  title: "DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp"
  slug: "deepseek-v3.2-exp"
  provider: "DeepSeek"
  description: "Experimental DeepSeek-V3.2 preview with sparse attention (MQA-like logits) and FP8 KV cache; architecture matches DeepSeek-V3.1 except for the sparse attention mechanism."
  date_added: 2025-09-29
  date_updated: 2026-09-14
  tasks:
    - text
  performance_headline: "Sparse attention MoE with FP8 KV cache and strong GSM8K score (~0.96)"
  related_recipes:
    - "deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1"
    - "deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2"
  hardware:
    h200: verified
    mi300x: verified
    mi325x: verified
    mi355x: verified

model:
  model_id: "deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp"
  min_vllm_version: "0.12.0"
  default_frontend: rust
  architecture: moe
  parameter_count: "671B"
  active_parameters: "37B"
  context_length: 163840
  supports_dcp: true
  base_args:
    - "--trust-remote-code"
  base_env: {}

dependencies:
  - note: "DeepGEMM pinned build for MQA logits (FP8 MoE kernels)"
    command: "uv pip install git+https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepGEMM.git@v2.1.1.post3 --no-build-isolation"

features:
  tool_calling:
    description: "Enable tool calling with DeepSeek V3.2 chat template support."
    args:
      - "--tokenizer-mode"
      - "deepseek_v32"
      - "--tool-call-parser"
      - "deepseek_v32"
      - "--enable-auto-tool-choice"
  reasoning:
    description: "Dynamic thinking mode via chat_template_kwargs, same as DeepSeek-V3.1."
    args:
      - "--reasoning-parser"
      - "deepseek_v3"

opt_in_features: []

variants:
  default:
    precision: fp8
    vram_minimum_gb: 805
    description: "Native FP8 weights on 8xH200 (or H20, or 8xB200) with FP8 KV cache default"

compatible_strategies:
  - single_node_tp
  - single_node_tep
  - single_node_dep
  - multi_node_tp
  - multi_node_tp_pp
  - multi_node_dep
  - multi_node_tep

hardware_overrides:
  amd:
    # V3.2-Exp uses sparse attention → --block-size 1 + bfloat16 KV cache.
    extra_args:
      - "--block-size"
      - "1"
      - "--kv-cache-dtype"
      - "bfloat16"
      - "--max-num-batched-tokens"
      - "32768"
    extra_env:
      VLLM_ROCM_USE_AITER: "1"
      VLLM_ROCM_USE_AITER_MOE: "1"
      SAFETENSORS_FAST_GPU: "1"

strategy_overrides: {}

guide: |
  ## Overview

  DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp is a sparse-attention MoE preview. Its main architecture is similar to
  DeepSeek-V3.1, with a sparse attention mechanism. This guide covers deployment on NVIDIA
  Hopper/Blackwell GPUs and AMD MI300X / MI325X / MI355X GPUs.

  ## Prerequisites

  - **Hardware**: 8x H200/H20/B200 (CUDA) or 8x MI300X / MI325X / MI355X (ROCm)
  - **vLLM**: Current stable release
  - **DeepGEMM** (CUDA only): Required for MQA logits computation (and optionally for MoE)

  ### CUDA
  ```bash
  source .venv/bin/activate
  uv pip install -U vllm --torch-backend auto
  uv pip install git+https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepGEMM.git@v2.1.1.post3 --no-build-isolation
  ```

  ### ROCm (MI300X, MI325X, MI355X)
  Requires Python 3.12, ROCm 7.2.1, and glibc >= 2.35. If your environment does not
  meet these requirements, use the Docker-based setup described in the
  [documentation](https://docs.vllm.ai/en/latest/getting_started/installation/gpu/#pre-built-images).
  ```bash
  uv venv --python 3.12
  source .venv/bin/activate
  uv pip install vllm --extra-index-url https://wheels.vllm.ai/rocm/
  ```

  Note: DeepGEMM is used both for MoE and for MQA logits computation. It is required for
  MQA logits on CUDA. To disable the MoE path only, set `VLLM_USE_DEEP_GEMM=0`. Some users
  report better performance with `VLLM_USE_DEEP_GEMM=0` (e.g. on H20), and this also skips
  the long warmup.

  ## Launching DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp

  ### 8xH200 / 8xH20 (CUDA)

  Using the recommended EP/DP mode:
  ```bash
  vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp -dp 8 --enable-expert-parallel
  ```

  Using tensor parallel:
  ```bash
  vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp -tp 8
  ```

  ### 8xB200 (CUDA)

  Same as 8xH200 / 8xH20.

  ### 8xMI300X / MI325X / MI355X (ROCm)

  ```bash
  export SAFETENSORS_FAST_GPU=1
  export VLLM_ROCM_USE_AITER=1
  export VLLM_ROCM_USE_AITER_MOE=1

  vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp \
    --tensor-parallel-size 8 \
    --max-num-batched-tokens 32768 \
    --trust-remote-code \
    --kv-cache-dtype bfloat16 \
    --block-size 1
  ```

  ## Accuracy Benchmarking

  ```bash
  lm-eval --model local-completions --tasks gsm8k \
    --model_args model=deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp,base_url=http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1/completions,num_concurrent=100,max_retries=3,tokenized_requests=False
  ```

  Reported GSM8K score: `0.9591` (5-shot) and `0.9538` (20-shot).

  ## Performance Tips

  1. The kernels are mainly optimized for TP=1, so it is recommended to run this model
     under EP/DP mode (e.g. DP=8, EP=8, TP=1). If you hit any errors or hangs, try tensor
     parallel instead. Simple TP works and is more robust, but the performance is not optimal.
  2. The default config uses a custom `fp8` KV cache. You can also use `bfloat16` KV cache
     by specifying `kv_cache_dtype=bfloat16`. FP8 allows more tokens to be cached but incurs
     quantization/dequantization overhead. Use `bfloat16` for short requests and `fp8` for
     long requests.

  ## Troubleshooting

  - **`CUDA error (flashmla-src/csrc/smxx/mla_combine.cu:201): invalid configuration argument`**:
    This may be caused by too large a batch size. Try `--max-num-seqs 256` or smaller
    (default is 1024).
  - For thinking-mode toggling, refer to the DeepSeek-V3.1 recipe (`deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1`).

  ## References

  - [DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp on Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp)
  - [End-to-end tutorial (Jupyter Notebook)](https://github.com/vllm-project/recipes/blob/main/DeepSeek/DeepSeek_v3_2_vLLM_getting_started_guide.ipynb)