Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Side-by-side comparison of VRAM requirements, quantization, context length, and hardware compatibility.
Specifications
| Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 8B | 8.0B |
| Context | 8K | 131K |
| Architecture | LlamaForCausalLM | — |
| License | Other | Llama 3.1 Community |
| Downloads | 13.1K | 11.3M |
| Released | Jan 2026 | Sep 2024 |
VRAM by Quantization: Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
| Quantization | Bits | Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B VRAM | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | — | 3.8 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | — | 4.3 GB |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | — | 3.9 GB |
| Q4_0 | 4.00 | — | 4.4 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | — | 5.3 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | — | 6.3 GB |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | — | 7.3 GB |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | — | 8.8 GB |
Verdict
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports a longer context window (131K tokens). Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is the more widely downloaded of the two.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which has a longer context window, Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B supports 8,192 tokens and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports 131,072 tokens.
- What is the difference between Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Dolphin 2.9 Llama3 8B is a 8B model from dphn (Llama 3 family), while Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is a 8.0B model from Meta (Llama 3 family). Compare their VRAM requirements above to see which fits your GPU or Mac.