DeepSeek v3 vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
DeepSeek v3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct match in llmrun Score, with values of 88.7 versus 87.1; neither fits 24 GB.
Model A · DeepSeek
DeepSeek v3684.5B · 40.1B active · 160K context · Dec 2024
Model B · Meta
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct401.6B · 17B active · Other · Apr 2025
Choose DeepSeek v3 if you want…
Stronger at coding
96.9 vs 81.1
Also does chat, function-calling
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct doesn't list it
Choose Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct if you want…
Stronger at science
95.9 vs 89.5
Lighter on memory
265.1 vs 414.6 GB at Q4_K_M
Also does vision
DeepSeek v3 doesn't list it
Newer release
Apr 2025 vs Dec 2024
On your hardware
Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.
8 GB
RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
DeepSeek v3
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 189.7 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 129.2 GB
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
DeepSeek v3
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Coding
DeepSeek v3
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Science
DeepSeek v3
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Reasoning
DeepSeek v3
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
DeepSeek v3 · #71 of 100 open models · #67 of 96 that fit ≤512 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct · #72 of 100 open models · #69 of 96 that fit ≤512 GB
Benchmarks
9 shared boards: DeepSeek v3 leads 3, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct leads 5 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026
DeepSeek v3
56.5%#45/98 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
67.0%#36/98 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025
DeepSeek v3
15.8%#56/86 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
20.6%#54/86 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025
DeepSeek v3
75.9%#29/145 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
80.5%#24/145 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
DeepSeek v3
48.4%#9/18 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
15.6%#15/18 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025
DeepSeek v3
35.8%#44/66 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
33.1%#49/66 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025
DeepSeek v3
18.9%#24/25 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
27.7%#17/25 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025
DeepSeek v3
64.8%#10/39 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
73.0%#7/39 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025
DeepSeek v3
0.0%#47/66 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
0.0%#55/66 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025
DeepSeek v3
59.1#10/26 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
57.5#16/26 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025
17 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
DeepSeek v3
1358.4#70/187 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
1327.0#89/187 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Only DeepSeek v3 (8)
- MMLU87.2%
- SWE-bench Lite36.7%
- METR Time Horizons47.4%
- BIG-Bench Hard87.5%
- WinoGrande85.2%
- ARC Challenge95.3%
- HellaSwag88.9%
- TriviaQA82.9%
Only Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct (8)
- Humanity's Last Exam5.7%
- ARC-AGI-20.0%
- ARC-AGI4.4%
- WeirdML24.5%
- DTBench61.9%
- Fiction.LiveBench46.2%
- LMCA15.9%
- ALE-Bench173.0
VRAM by quantization
Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.
Q2_K
DeepSeek v3
295 GB~290.9 GB file
32K 294 GB · 128K 300 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
188 GB145.6 GB file
32K 204 GB · 128K 257 GB
Q3_K_S
DeepSeek v3
not listed
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
193 GB172.7 GB file
32K 210 GB · 128K 262 GB
Q3_K_M
DeepSeek v3
338 GB319.2 GB file
32K 336 GB · 128K 343 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
215 GB191.1 GB file
32K 232 GB · 128K 284 GB
Q4_0
DeepSeek v3
not listed
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
221 GB226.8 GB file
32K 237 GB · 128K 290 GB
Q4_K_M
DeepSeek v3
415 GB404.4 GB file
32K 413 GB · 128K 420 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
265 GB242.8 GB file
32K 282 GB · 128K 334 GB
Q5_K_M
DeepSeek v3
492 GB475.4 GB file
32K 490 GB · 128K 497 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
315 GB284.5 GB file
32K 331 GB · 128K 384 GB
Q6_K
DeepSeek v3
569 GB550.8 GB file
32K 567 GB · 128K 574 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
364 GB328.8 GB file
32K 381 GB · 128K 434 GB
Q8_0
DeepSeek v3
688 GB713.3 GB file
32K 687 GB · 128K 694 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
442 GB425.8 GB file
32K 458 GB · 128K 511 GB
14 more quants
IQ2_XXS
DeepSeek v3
192 GB174.4 GB file
32K 191 GB · 128K 198 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
121 GB135.2 GB file
32K 138 GB · 128K 191 GB
IQ2_XS
DeepSeek v3
209 GB195.1 GB file
32K 208 GB · 128K 215 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
not listed
IQ2_S
DeepSeek v3
218 GB197.0 GB file
32K 217 GB · 128K 223 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
not listed
IQ2_M
DeepSeek v3
235 GB217.4 GB file
32K 234 GB · 128K 241 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
149 GB141.2 GB file
32K 166 GB · 128K 218 GB
IQ3_XXS
DeepSeek v3
269 GB257.9 GB file
32K 268 GB · 128K 275 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
171 GB169.3 GB file
32K 188 GB · 128K 240 GB
IQ3_XS
DeepSeek v3
286 GB272.8 GB file
32K 285 GB · 128K 292 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
not listed
IQ3_S
DeepSeek v3
295 GB289.1 GB file
32K 294 GB · 128K 300 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
not listed
IQ3_M
DeepSeek v3
312 GB292.1 GB file
32K 311 GB · 128K 318 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
not listed
IQ4_XS
DeepSeek v3
not listed
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
237 GB214.3 GB file
32K 254 GB · 128K 307 GB
IQ4_NL
DeepSeek v3
389 GB378.1 GB file
32K 388 GB · 128K 395 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
248 GB225.8 GB file
32K 265 GB · 128K 318 GB
Q4_1
DeepSeek v3
not listed
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
248 GB250.7 GB file
32K 265 GB · 128K 318 GB
Q4_K_S
DeepSeek v3
not listed
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
248 GB227.8 GB file
32K 265 GB · 128K 318 GB
Q5_K_S
DeepSeek v3
not listed
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
304 GB275.7 GB file
32K 320 GB · 128K 373 GB
BF16
DeepSeek v3
1373 GB1342.3 GB file
32K 1372 GB · 128K 1379 GB
Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
883 GB801.5 GB file
32K 900 GB · 128K 953 GB
DeepSeek v3
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/DeepSeek-V3-GGUF:Q4_K_MLlama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | DeepSeek v3 | Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | DeepSeek | Meta |
| Parameters | 684.5B | 401.6B |
| Active parameters | 40B per token | 17B per token |
| Architecture | DeepseekV3ForCausalLM | — |
| Context | 160K tokens | — |
| Modalities | Chat, Function-calling | Vision |
| License | — | Other |
| Released | Dec 2024 | Apr 2025 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, DeepSeek v3 or Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct?
DeepSeek v3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct match in llmrun Score, with values of 88.7 versus 87.1; neither fits 24 GB. Choose DeepSeek v3 for stronger at coding and also does chat, function-calling; choose Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct for stronger at science and lighter on memory.
Which needs less VRAM, DeepSeek v3 or Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct?
At Q4_K_M, DeepSeek v3 requires 414.6 GB while Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct needs 265.1 GB, making Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct the easier model to run on your local setup.
Can I run DeepSeek v3 or Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct on a 16 GB GPU?
DeepSeek v3 does not fit (smallest quant needs 189.7 GB); Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct does not fit (smallest quant needs 129.2 GB).