DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Qwen3 4B Heretic
Side-by-side comparison of VRAM requirements, quantization, context length, and hardware compatibility.
Specifications
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B | Qwen3 4B Heretic | |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 1.8B | 4.0B |
| Context | 131K | 41K |
| Architecture | Qwen2ForCausalLM | Qwen3ForCausalLM |
| License | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
| Downloads | 788.2K | 773 |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Mar 2026 |
VRAM by Quantization: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Qwen3 4B Heretic
| Quantization | Bits | DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B VRAM | Qwen3 4B Heretic VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | 1.1 GB | 2.2 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | 1.2 GB | 2.5 GB |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | — | 2.3 GB |
| Q4_0 | 4.00 | — | 2.5 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | 1.4 GB | 2.9 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | 1.6 GB | 3.4 GB |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | 1.8 GB | 3.8 GB |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | 2.1 GB | 4.5 GB |
Verdict
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B needs less VRAM at Q4_K_M (1.4 GB vs 2.9 GB), so it fits on smaller GPUs. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports a longer context window (131K tokens). DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is the more widely downloaded of the two.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which needs less VRAM, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Qwen3 4B Heretic?
At Q4_K_M, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B needs 1.4 GB and Qwen3 4B Heretic needs 2.9 GB, so DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is the lighter option to run locally.
- Which has a longer context window, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Qwen3 4B Heretic?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B supports 131,072 tokens and Qwen3 4B Heretic supports 40,960 tokens.
- What is the difference between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Qwen3 4B Heretic?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is a 1.8B model from DeepSeek (Qwen family), while Qwen3 4B Heretic is a 4.0B model from DreamFast (Qwen family). Compare their VRAM requirements above to see which fits your GPU or Mac.