Gemma 3 12B IT vs Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Gemma 3 12B IT leads llmrun Score 74.2 to 65.4 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M.
Model B · Mistral AI
Mistral Nemo Instruct 240712.2B · 128K context · Apache 2.0 · Jul 2024
Choose Gemma 3 12B IT if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
74.2 vs 65.4, ranges overlap
Ahead on the benchmarks
2 of 3 shared boards
Also does vision
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 doesn't list it
Newer release
Mar 2025 vs Jul 2024
Choose Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 if you want…
Longer context window
128K vs 32K tokens
Also does chat, function-calling
Gemma 3 12B IT doesn't list it
More permissive license
Apache 2.0 vs Gemma Terms
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 3 12B IT
IQ2_M · ~39 tok/s
7.4 GB · up to 16K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
IQ2_M · ~37 tok/s
7.8 GB · up to 16K
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 16K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s
11 GB · up to 16K
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~36 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 32K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~36 tok/s
11 GB · up to 32K
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~82 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 32K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~81 tok/s
11 GB · up to 64K
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~145 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 32K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~144 tok/s
11 GB · up to 64K
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~62 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 32K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~62 tok/s
11 GB · up to 128K
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~10 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 32K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~10 tok/s
11 GB · up to 64K
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~48 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 32K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~47 tok/s
11 GB · up to 128K
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 3 12B IT
Q4_K_M · ~48 tok/s
10.9 GB · up to 32K
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Q4_K_M · ~47 tok/s
11 GB · up to 128K
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
Gemma 3 12B IT
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Science
Gemma 3 12B IT
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
no data
Reasoning
Gemma 3 12B IT
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
no data
Gemma 3 12B IT · #82 of 92 open models · #26 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 · #84 of 92 open models · #27 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Benchmarks
3 shared boards: Gemma 3 12B IT leads 2, Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 leads 0 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026
Gemma 3 12B IT
39.5%#70/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
29.9%#81/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Gemma 3 12B IT
60.6%#57/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
44.8%#86/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Gemma 3 12B IT
48.8%#62/68 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
48.6%#63/68 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024
8 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Only Gemma 3 12B IT (6)
- LMArena Text1341.8
- AIME 2024/202516.7%
- SciCode17.4%
- Chess Puzzles0.0%
- CritPt0.0%
- LMCA4.5%
Only Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 (2)
- MATH Level 510.8%
- BALROG17.6%
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 3 12B IT
5.7 GB4.8 GB file
32K 11.9 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
5.9 GB4.8 GB file
32K 12.2 GB · 128K 32.3 GB
Q3_K_S
Gemma 3 12B IT
5.9 GB5.5 GB file
32K 12.1 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
6.1 GB5.5 GB file
32K 12.4 GB · 128K 32.5 GB
Q3_K_M
Gemma 3 12B IT
6.5 GB6.0 GB file
32K 12.7 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
6.7 GB6.1 GB file
32K 13.0 GB · 128K 33.1 GB
Q4_0
Gemma 3 12B IT
6.7 GB6.9 GB file
32K 12.9 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
6.8 GB7.1 GB file
32K 13.1 GB · 128K 33.3 GB
Q4_K_M
Gemma 3 12B IT
8.0 GB7.3 GB file
32K 14.2 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
8.1 GB7.5 GB file
32K 14.4 GB · 128K 34.5 GB
Q5_K_M
Gemma 3 12B IT
9.6 GB8.4 GB file
32K 15.7 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
9.5 GB8.7 GB file
32K 15.7 GB · 128K 35.9 GB
Q6_K
Gemma 3 12B IT
11.1 GB9.7 GB file
32K 17.3 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
10.8 GB10.1 GB file
32K 17.1 GB · 128K 37.2 GB
Q8_0
Gemma 3 12B IT
13.4 GB12.5 GB file
32K 19.6 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
13.0 GB13.0 GB file
32K 19.3 GB · 128K 39.4 GB
19 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Gemma 3 12B IT
3.7 GB3.6 GB file
32K 9.9 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
4.1 GB3.6 GB file
32K 10.4 GB · 128K 30.5 GB
IQ2_XS
Gemma 3 12B IT
4.0 GB3.8 GB file
32K 10.2 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
4.4 GB3.9 GB file
32K 10.7 GB · 128K 30.8 GB
IQ2_S
Gemma 3 12B IT
4.2 GB4.0 GB file
32K 10.4 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
4.6 GB4.1 GB file
32K 10.8 GB · 128K 31.0 GB
IQ2_M
Gemma 3 12B IT
4.5 GB4.4 GB file
32K 10.7 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
4.9 GB4.4 GB file
32K 11.1 GB · 128K 31.3 GB
IQ3_XXS
Gemma 3 12B IT
5.2 GB4.8 GB file
32K 11.4 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
5.5 GB4.9 GB file
32K 11.8 GB · 128K 31.9 GB
Q2_K_S
Gemma 3 12B IT
5.4 GB4.4 GB file
32K 11.6 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
not listed
IQ3_XS
Gemma 3 12B IT
5.5 GB5.2 GB file
32K 11.7 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
5.8 GB5.3 GB file
32K 12.1 GB · 128K 32.2 GB
IQ3_S
Gemma 3 12B IT
5.7 GB5.5 GB file
32K 11.9 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
5.9 GB5.6 GB file
32K 12.2 GB · 128K 32.3 GB
IQ3_M
Gemma 3 12B IT
6.0 GB5.7 GB file
32K 12.2 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
6.2 GB5.7 GB file
32K 12.5 GB · 128K 32.7 GB
Q3_K_L
Gemma 3 12B IT
6.9 GB6.5 GB file
32K 13.1 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
7.0 GB6.6 GB file
32K 13.3 GB · 128K 33.4 GB
IQ4_XS
Gemma 3 12B IT
7.2 GB6.6 GB file
32K 13.4 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
7.3 GB6.7 GB file
32K 13.6 GB · 128K 33.7 GB
IQ4_NL
Gemma 3 12B IT
7.5 GB6.9 GB file
32K 13.7 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
not listed
Q4_1
Gemma 3 12B IT
7.5 GB7.6 GB file
32K 13.7 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
not listed
Q4_K_S
Gemma 3 12B IT
7.5 GB6.9 GB file
32K 13.7 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
7.6 GB7.1 GB file
32K 13.9 GB · 128K 34.0 GB
Q4_K_L
Gemma 3 12B IT
8.2 GB7.5 GB file
32K 14.4 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
8.2 GB8.0 GB file
32K 14.5 GB · 128K 34.6 GB
Q5_0
Gemma 3 12B IT
8.4 GB8.2 GB file
32K 14.6 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
8.4 GB8.5 GB file
32K 14.7 GB · 128K 34.8 GB
Q5_K_S
Gemma 3 12B IT
9.2 GB8.2 GB file
32K 15.4 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
9.1 GB8.5 GB file
32K 15.4 GB · 128K 35.6 GB
Q5_K_L
Gemma 3 12B IT
9.7 GB8.7 GB file
32K 15.9 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
9.6 GB9.1 GB file
32K 15.9 GB · 128K 36.0 GB
BF16
Gemma 3 12B IT
26.8 GB23.5 GB file
32K 33.0 GB · 128K —
Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407
25.2 GB~24.5 GB file
32K 31.5 GB · 128K 51.6 GB
Gemma 3 12B IT
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/gemma-3-12b-it-GGUF:Q4_K_MMistral Nemo Instruct 2407
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Gemma 3 12B IT | Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Mistral AI | |
| Parameters | 12.2B | 12.2B |
| Architecture | — | MistralForCausalLM |
| Context | 32K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Modalities | Vision | Chat, Function-calling |
| License | Gemma Terms | Apache 2.0 |
| Released | Mar 2025 | Jul 2024 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Gemma 3 12B IT or Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407?
Gemma 3 12B IT leads llmrun Score 74.2 to 65.4 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M. Choose Gemma 3 12B IT for higher llmrun Score and ahead on the benchmarks; choose Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 for longer context window and also does chat, function-calling.
Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 3 12B IT or Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407?
At Q4_K_M, Gemma 3 12B IT requires 8.0 GB while Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 needs 8.1 GB, making Gemma 3 12B IT the easier model to run on your local setup.
Which is faster on RTX 4090?
Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 82 tok/s for Gemma 3 12B IT (Q4_K_M) and 81 tok/s for Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 (Q4_K_M), so Gemma 3 12B IT is faster. Estimates, ±20%.
Can I run Gemma 3 12B IT or Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 on a 16 GB GPU?
Gemma 3 12B IT fits at Q4_K_M; Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 fits at Q4_K_M.
Which has a longer context window, Gemma 3 12B IT or Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407?
Gemma 3 12B IT supports 32,768 tokens and Mistral Nemo Instruct 2407 supports 131,072 tokens.