llmrun

Gemma 2 9B IT vs Qwen3.5 9B

Qwen3.5 9B leads llmrun Score 99.4 to 68.0; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M.

Model A · Google

Gemma 2 9B IT
68.0llmrun Score

9.2B · 8K context · Gemma Terms · Jun 2024

Chat

Model B · Alibaba

Qwen3.5 9B
99.4llmrun Score

9.7B · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Feb 2026

VisionFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose Gemma 2 9B IT if you want…

  • Also does chat

    Qwen3.5 9B doesn't list it

Choose Qwen3.5 9B if you want…

  • Higher llmrun Score

    99.4 vs 68.0

  • Ahead on the benchmarks

    3 of 3 shared boards

  • Longer context window

    256K vs 8K tokens

  • Also does vision, function-calling

    Gemma 2 9B IT doesn't list it

  • More permissive license

    Apache 2.0 vs Gemma Terms

  • Newer release

    Feb 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 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~28 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 32K

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~38 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~37 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 128K

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~48 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~46 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 256K

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~107 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~103 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 256K

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~191 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~183 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 256K

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~82 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~79 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 256K

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~14 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~13 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 256K

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~63 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~60 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 256K

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Gemma 2 9B IT

Q4_K_M · ~63 tok/s

7.3 GB · up to 8K

Qwen3.5 9B

Q4_K_M · ~60 tok/s

6.6 GB · up to 256K

Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).

llmrun Score

with its 90% range · bars share one scale

Overall

Gemma 2 9B IT

68.060–76

Qwen3.5 9B

99.496–103

Science

Gemma 2 9B IT

no data

Qwen3.5 9B

104.596–113

Reasoning

Gemma 2 9B IT

no data

Qwen3.5 9B

97.089–106

Gemma 2 9B IT · #99 of 106 open models · #30 of 36 that fit 24 GB

Qwen3.5 9B · #59 of 106 open models · #10 of 36 that fit 24 GB

Benchmarks

3 shared boards: Gemma 2 9B IT leads 0, Qwen3.5 9B leads 3 · Benchmarks imported Nov 2026

GPQA Diamond

Gemma 2 9B IT

27.5%#88/100 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jun 2024

Qwen3.5 9B

79.0%#28/100 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026

AIME 2024/2025

Gemma 2 9B IT

0.6%#84/88 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jun 2024

Qwen3.5 9B

61.7%#39/88 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026

MMLU-Pro

Gemma 2 9B IT

52.1%#73/146 open

IndependentTIGER-Lab

Qwen3.5 9B

82.5%#17/146 open

IndependentTIGER-Lab

8 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)

Only Gemma 2 9B IT (3)

Only Qwen3.5 9B (5)

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 9B IT

4.3 GB3.8 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

4.7 GB4.3 GB file

32K 5.5 GB · 128K 8.7 GB

Q3_K_S

Gemma 2 9B IT

4.5 GB4.3 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

4.8 GB4.3 GB file

32K 5.6 GB · 128K 8.8 GB

Q3_K_M

Gemma 2 9B IT

5.0 GB4.8 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

5.3 GB4.7 GB file

32K 6.1 GB · 128K 9.3 GB

Q4_0

Gemma 2 9B IT

5.1 GB5.4 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

5.4 GB5.4 GB file

32K 6.2 GB · 128K 9.4 GB

Q4_K_M

Gemma 2 9B IT

6.1 GB5.8 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

6.4 GB5.7 GB file

32K 7.2 GB · 128K 10.4 GB

Q5_K_M

Gemma 2 9B IT

7.2 GB6.6 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

7.5 GB6.6 GB file

32K 8.3 GB · 128K 11.5 GB

Q6_K

Gemma 2 9B IT

8.4 GB7.6 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

8.5 GB7.5 GB file

32K 9.3 GB · 128K 12.6 GB

Q8_0

Gemma 2 9B IT

10.2 GB9.8 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

10.2 GB9.5 GB file

32K 11.0 GB · 128K 14.3 GB

19 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Gemma 2 9B IT

2.8 GB2.8 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

3.2 GB3.2 GB file

32K 4.0 GB · 128K 7.3 GB

IQ2_XS

Gemma 2 9B IT

3.1 GB3.1 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

not listed

IQ2_S

Gemma 2 9B IT

3.2 GB3.2 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

3.6 GB3.5 GB file

32K 4.4 GB · 128K 7.6 GB

IQ2_M

Gemma 2 9B IT

3.4 GB3.4 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

3.8 GB3.6 GB file

32K 4.6 GB · 128K 7.9 GB

IQ3_XXS

Gemma 2 9B IT

3.9 GB3.8 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

4.3 GB4.0 GB file

32K 5.1 GB · 128K 8.3 GB

IQ3_XS

Gemma 2 9B IT

4.2 GB4.1 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

4.6 GB4.8 GB file

32K 5.4 GB · 128K 8.6 GB

IQ3_S

Gemma 2 9B IT

4.3 GB4.3 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

4.7 GB3.2 GB file

32K 5.5 GB · 128K 8.7 GB

IQ3_M

Gemma 2 9B IT

4.6 GB4.5 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

4.9 GB5.0 GB file

32K 5.7 GB · 128K 8.9 GB

Q3_K_L

Gemma 2 9B IT

5.2 GB5.1 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

5.5 GB5.4 GB file

32K 6.3 GB · 128K 9.6 GB

IQ4_XS

Gemma 2 9B IT

5.5 GB5.2 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

5.8 GB5.2 GB file

32K 6.6 GB · 128K 9.8 GB

IQ4_NL

Gemma 2 9B IT

not listed

Qwen3.5 9B

6.0 GB5.4 GB file

32K 6.8 GB · 128K 10.0 GB

Q4_1

Gemma 2 9B IT

5.7 GB6.0 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

6.0 GB5.8 GB file

32K 6.8 GB · 128K 10.0 GB

Q4_K_S

Gemma 2 9B IT

5.7 GB5.5 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

6.0 GB5.4 GB file

32K 6.8 GB · 128K 10.0 GB

Q4_K_L

Gemma 2 9B IT

6.2 GB6.0 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

6.5 GB6.9 GB file

32K 7.3 GB · 128K 10.5 GB

Q5_0

Gemma 2 9B IT

6.4 GB6.5 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

not listed

Q5_1

Gemma 2 9B IT

7.0 GB7.0 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

not listed

Q5_K_S

Gemma 2 9B IT

7.0 GB6.5 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

7.2 GB6.4 GB file

32K 8.0 GB · 128K 11.2 GB

Q5_K_L

Gemma 2 9B IT

7.4 GB6.9 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

7.6 GB7.7 GB file

32K 8.4 GB · 128K 11.6 GB

BF16

Gemma 2 9B IT

20.3 GB18.5 GB file

32K — · 128K —

Qwen3.5 9B

19.9 GB17.9 GB file

32K 20.7 GB · 128K 23.9 GB

How to run each

Specifications

Specifications of Gemma 2 9B IT and Qwen3.5 9B
SpecGemma 2 9B ITQwen3.5 9B
PublisherGoogleAlibaba
Parameters9.2B9.7B
Architecture—Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration
Context8K tokens256K tokens
ModalitiesChatVision, Function-calling
LicenseGemma TermsApache 2.0
ReleasedJun 2024Feb 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Gemma 2 9B IT or Qwen3.5 9B?

Qwen3.5 9B leads llmrun Score 99.4 to 68.0; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M. Choose Gemma 2 9B IT for also does chat; choose Qwen3.5 9B for higher llmrun Score and ahead on the benchmarks.

Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 2 9B IT or Qwen3.5 9B?

At Q4_K_M, Gemma 2 9B IT requires 6.1 GB while Qwen3.5 9B needs 6.4 GB, making Gemma 2 9B IT the easier model to run on your local setup.

Which is faster on RTX 4090?

Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 107 tok/s for Gemma 2 9B IT (Q4_K_M) and 103 tok/s for Qwen3.5 9B (Q4_K_M), so Gemma 2 9B IT is faster. Estimates, ±20%.

Can I run Gemma 2 9B IT or Qwen3.5 9B on a 16 GB GPU?

Gemma 2 9B IT fits at Q4_K_M; Qwen3.5 9B fits at Q4_K_M.

Which has a longer context window, Gemma 2 9B IT or Qwen3.5 9B?

Gemma 2 9B IT supports 8,192 tokens and Qwen3.5 9B supports 262,144 tokens.

Gemma 2 9B IT vs Qwen3.5 9B — VRAM & GPU Comparison | llmrun