Gemma 2 27B IT vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Qwen3.6 35B A3B leads llmrun Score 106.8 to 72.7; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Qwen3.6 35B A3B is 4.1× faster on RTX 4090 (~151 vs ~37 tok/s).
Model B · Alibaba
Qwen3.6 35B A3B36.0B · 4.7B active · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Apr 2026
Choose Gemma 2 27B IT if you want…
Fits a 16 GB GPU
IQ3_M · 15 GB; Qwen3.6 35B A3B needs 10.4 GB at its smallest quant
Lighter on memory
18.0 vs 22.0 GB at Q4_K_M
Also does chat
Qwen3.6 35B A3B doesn't list it
Choose Qwen3.6 35B A3B if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
106.8 vs 72.7
4.1× faster on RTX 4090
~151 vs ~37 tok/s
Longer context window
256K vs 8K tokens
Also does vision, function-calling
Gemma 2 27B IT doesn't list it
More permissive license
Apache 2.0 vs Gemma Terms
Newer release
Apr 2026 vs Jun 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
Gemma 2 27B IT
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 9.8 GB
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 10.4 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Gemma 2 27B IT
IQ2_M · ~23 tok/s
11.7 GB · up to 8K
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
IQ2_S · ~114 tok/s
11.7 GB · up to 32K
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
Gemma 2 27B IT
IQ3_M · ~22 tok/s
15 GB · up to 8Kbetter quant
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Q2_K · ~108 tok/s
15.7 GB · up to 32K
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Gemma 2 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~37 tok/s
19.5 GB · up to 8K
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Q4_K_M · ~151 tok/s
22 GB · up to 128Kfaster
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Gemma 2 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~65 tok/s
19.5 GB · up to 8K
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Q4_K_M · ~213 tok/s
22 GB · up to 256Kfaster
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Gemma 2 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~28 tok/s
19.5 GB · up to 8K
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Q4_K_M · ~125 tok/s
22 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Gemma 2 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s
19.5 GB · up to 8K
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Q4_K_M · ~24 tok/s
22 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 2 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~21 tok/s
19.5 GB · up to 8K
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Q4_K_M · ~64 tok/s
22 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 2 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~21 tok/s
19.5 GB · up to 8K
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Q4_K_M · ~64 tok/s
22 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
Gemma 2 27B IT
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Coding
Gemma 2 27B IT
no data
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Math
Gemma 2 27B IT
no data
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Science
Gemma 2 27B IT
no data
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Reasoning
Gemma 2 27B IT
no data
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Gemma 2 27B IT · #97 of 106 open models · #29 of 36 that fit 24 GB
Qwen3.6 35B A3B · #41 of 106 open models · #3 of 36 that fit 24 GB
Benchmarks
2 shared boards: Gemma 2 27B IT leads 0, Qwen3.6 35B A3B leads 2 · Benchmarks imported Nov 2026
Gemma 2 27B IT
36.5%#76/100 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jun 2024
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
84.9%#23/100 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2026
Gemma 2 27B IT
1.4%#80/88 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jun 2024
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
86.7%#22/88 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2026
13 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Only Gemma 2 27B IT (4)
- LMArena Text1289.5
- MMLU-Pro56.5%
- MATH Level 527.9%
- MMLU75.7%
Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B (9)
- FrontierMath20.3%
- Terminal-Bench24.6%
- SciCode36.6%
- WeirdML34.5%
- CritPt0.3%
- DTBench73.9%
- LMCA29.7%
- Mystery Game Puzzles22.0%
- Surface Evolver Bench44.4%
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
Gemma 2 27B IT
12.7 GB10.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
15.7 GB13.5 GB file
32K 15.9 GB · 128K 16.9 GB
Q3_K_S
Gemma 2 27B IT
13.1 GB12.2 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
16.1 GB15.4 GB file
32K 16.4 GB · 128K 17.4 GB
Q3_K_M
Gemma 2 27B IT
14.6 GB13.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
17.9 GB16.6 GB file
32K 18.2 GB · 128K 19.2 GB
Q4_0
Gemma 2 27B IT
15.0 GB15.7 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
18.4 GB19.8 GB file
32K 18.6 GB · 128K 19.6 GB
Q4_K_M
Gemma 2 27B IT
18.0 GB16.6 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
22.0 GB22.1 GB file
32K 22.2 GB · 128K 23.2 GB
Q5_K_M
Gemma 2 27B IT
21.3 GB19.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
26.0 GB26.5 GB file
32K 26.3 GB · 128K 27.3 GB
Q6_K
Gemma 2 27B IT
24.7 GB22.3 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
30.0 GB29.3 GB file
32K 30.3 GB · 128K 31.3 GB
Q8_0
Gemma 2 27B IT
30.0 GB28.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
36.3 GB36.9 GB file
32K 36.6 GB · 128K 37.6 GB
20 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Gemma 2 27B IT
8.2 GB7.6 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
10.3 GB10.8 GB file
32K 10.5 GB · 128K 11.5 GB
IQ2_XS
Gemma 2 27B IT
9.0 GB8.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
11.2 GB11.7 GB file
32K 11.4 GB · 128K 12.4 GB
IQ2_S
Gemma 2 27B IT
9.4 GB8.7 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
11.6 GB11.9 GB file
32K 11.9 GB · 128K 12.9 GB
IQ2_M
Gemma 2 27B IT
10.1 GB9.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
12.5 GB11.5 GB file
32K 12.8 GB · 128K 13.8 GB
IQ3_XXS
Gemma 2 27B IT
11.6 GB10.8 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
14.3 GB13.2 GB file
32K 14.6 GB · 128K 15.6 GB
Q2_K_S
Gemma 2 27B IT
not listed
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
14.8 GB12.2 GB file
32K 15.0 GB · 128K 16.0 GB
IQ3_XS
Gemma 2 27B IT
12.4 GB11.6 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
15.2 GB17.1 GB file
32K 15.5 GB · 128K 16.5 GB
IQ3_S
Gemma 2 27B IT
12.7 GB12.2 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
15.7 GB13.7 GB file
32K 15.9 GB · 128K 16.9 GB
IQ3_M
Gemma 2 27B IT
13.5 GB12.5 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
16.6 GB17.8 GB file
32K 16.8 GB · 128K 17.8 GB
Q3_K_L
Gemma 2 27B IT
15.4 GB14.5 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
18.8 GB17.8 GB file
32K 19.1 GB · 128K 20.1 GB
IQ4_XS
Gemma 2 27B IT
16.1 GB14.8 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
19.7 GB17.7 GB file
32K 20.0 GB · 128K 21.0 GB
IQ4_NL
Gemma 2 27B IT
not listed
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
20.6 GB18.0 GB file
32K 20.9 GB · 128K 21.9 GB
Q4_1
Gemma 2 27B IT
not listed
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
20.6 GB22.9 GB file
32K 20.9 GB · 128K 21.9 GB
Q4_K_S
Gemma 2 27B IT
16.9 GB15.7 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
20.6 GB20.9 GB file
32K 20.9 GB · 128K 21.9 GB
Q4_K_L
Gemma 2 27B IT
18.3 GB16.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
22.4 GB22.7 GB file
32K 22.7 GB · 128K 23.7 GB
Q5_0
Gemma 2 27B IT
18.7 GB18.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
22.9 GB24.1 GB file
32K 23.1 GB · 128K 24.1 GB
Q5_1
Gemma 2 27B IT
not listed
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
25.1 GB26.1 GB file
32K 25.4 GB · 128K 26.4 GB
Q5_K_S
Gemma 2 27B IT
20.6 GB18.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
25.1 GB24.9 GB file
32K 25.4 GB · 128K 26.4 GB
Q5_K_L
Gemma 2 27B IT
21.7 GB19.7 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
26.5 GB26.2 GB file
32K 26.7 GB · 128K 27.7 GB
BF16
Gemma 2 27B IT
59.9 GB~54.5 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
72.3 GB69.4 GB file
32K 72.5 GB · 128K 73.6 GB
Gemma 2 27B IT
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/bartowski/gemma-2-27b-it-GGUF:Q4_K_MQwen3.6 35B A3B
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Gemma 2 27B IT | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Alibaba | |
| Parameters | 27.2B | 36.0B |
| Active parameters | — | 4.7B per token |
| Architecture | — | Qwen3_5MoeForConditionalGeneration |
| Context | 8K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Modalities | Chat | Vision, Function-calling |
| License | Gemma Terms | Apache 2.0 |
| Released | Jun 2024 | Apr 2026 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Gemma 2 27B IT or Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B leads llmrun Score 106.8 to 72.7; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Qwen3.6 35B A3B is 4.1× faster on RTX 4090 (~151 vs ~37 tok/s). Choose Gemma 2 27B IT for fits a 16 GB GPU and lighter on memory; choose Qwen3.6 35B A3B for higher llmrun Score and 4.1× faster on RTX 4090.
Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 2 27B IT or Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
At Q4_K_M, Gemma 2 27B IT requires 18.0 GB while Qwen3.6 35B A3B needs 22.0 GB, making Gemma 2 27B IT the easier model to run on your local setup.
Which is faster on RTX 4090?
Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 37 tok/s for Gemma 2 27B IT (Q4_K_M) and 151 tok/s for Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Q4_K_M), so Qwen3.6 35B A3B is faster. Estimates, ±20%.
Can I run Gemma 2 27B IT or Qwen3.6 35B A3B on a 16 GB GPU?
Gemma 2 27B IT fits at IQ3_M; Qwen3.6 35B A3B fits at Q2_K.
Which has a longer context window, Gemma 2 27B IT or Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
Gemma 2 27B IT supports 8,192 tokens and Qwen3.6 35B A3B supports 262,144 tokens.