Gemma 3 27B IT vs Phi 4
Phi 4 leads llmrun Score 83.8 to 79.3 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Phi 4 is 1.9× faster on RTX 4090 (~69 vs ~36 tok/s).
Choose Gemma 3 27B IT if you want…
Longer context window
128K vs 16K tokens
Also does vision
Phi 4 doesn't list it
Choose Phi 4 if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
83.8 vs 79.3, ranges overlap
Fits a 12 GB GPU
Q4_K_M · 12.5 GB; Gemma 3 27B IT needs 11.9 GB at its smallest quant
1.9× faster on RTX 4090
~69 vs ~36 tok/s
Lighter on memory
9.5 vs 18.1 GB at Q4_K_M
Also does chat, math, code
Gemma 3 27B IT doesn't list it
More permissive license
MIT 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 27B IT
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 11.9 GB
Phi 4
IQ2_XXS · ~37 tok/s
7.7 GB · up to 16Kfits
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Gemma 3 27B IT
IQ2_XXS · ~28 tok/s
11.9 GB · up to 16Kmore headroom
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~25 tok/stight
12.5 GB · up to 8K
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
Gemma 3 27B IT
Q2_K_S · ~24 tok/s
15.7 GB · up to 16K
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~31 tok/s
12.5 GB · up to 16Kmore headroom
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Gemma 3 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~36 tok/s
21.7 GB · up to 16K
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~69 tok/s
12.5 GB · up to 16Kfaster
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Gemma 3 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~64 tok/s
21.7 GB · up to 32K
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~122 tok/s
12.5 GB · up to 16Kfaster
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Gemma 3 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~28 tok/s
21.7 GB · up to 64K
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~52 tok/s
12.5 GB · up to 16Kfaster
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Gemma 3 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s
21.7 GB · up to 32K
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~9 tok/s
12.5 GB · up to 16Kfaster
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 3 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~21 tok/s
21.7 GB · up to 128K
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~40 tok/s
12.5 GB · up to 16Kfaster
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 3 27B IT
Q4_K_M · ~21 tok/s
21.7 GB · up to 128K
Phi 4
Q4_K_M · ~40 tok/s
12.5 GB · up to 16Kfaster
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
Gemma 3 27B IT
Phi 4
Coding
Gemma 3 27B IT
Phi 4
no data
Science
Gemma 3 27B IT
Phi 4
no data
Reasoning
Gemma 3 27B IT
Phi 4
no data
Gemma 3 27B IT · #78 of 92 open models · #24 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Phi 4 · #70 of 92 open models · #22 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Gemma 3 27B IT
47.7%#56/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Phi 4
56.1%#45/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Gemma 3 27B IT
1365.4#65/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Phi 4
1256.3#127/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Gemma 3 27B IT
22.5%#51/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Phi 4
13.8%#56/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Gemma 3 27B IT
67.5%#43/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Phi 4
70.4%#37/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Gemma 3 27B IT
74.0%#6/39 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Phi 4
64.9%#9/39 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
Gemma 3 27B IT
0.0%#50/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Phi 4
1.0%#42/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Dec 2024
8 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Only Gemma 3 27B IT (6)
- Aider Polyglot4.9%
- SciCode21.2%
- CritPt0.0%
- DTBench52.5%
- LMCA12.3%
- Fiction.LiveBench33.3%
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 27B IT
12.8 GB10.5 GB file
32K 20.6 GB · 128K 45.4 GB
Phi 4
7.0 GB5.5 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q3_K_S
Gemma 3 27B IT
13.2 GB12.2 GB file
32K 21.0 GB · 128K 45.8 GB
Phi 4
7.1 GB6.5 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q3_K_M
Gemma 3 27B IT
14.7 GB13.4 GB file
32K 22.5 GB · 128K 47.3 GB
Phi 4
7.9 GB7.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q4_0
Gemma 3 27B IT
15.1 GB15.6 GB file
32K 22.9 GB · 128K 47.7 GB
Phi 4
8.1 GB8.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q4_K_M
Gemma 3 27B IT
18.1 GB16.5 GB file
32K 25.9 GB · 128K 50.7 GB
Phi 4
9.5 GB9.1 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q5_K_M
Gemma 3 27B IT
21.5 GB19.3 GB file
32K 29.3 GB · 128K 54.1 GB
Phi 4
11.2 GB10.6 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q6_K
Gemma 3 27B IT
24.9 GB22.2 GB file
32K 32.7 GB · 128K 57.5 GB
Phi 4
12.8 GB12.0 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q8_0
Gemma 3 27B IT
30.2 GB28.7 GB file
32K 37.9 GB · 128K 62.8 GB
Phi 4
15.4 GB15.6 GB file
32K — · 128K —
20 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Gemma 3 27B IT
8.3 GB7.9 GB file
32K 16.1 GB · 128K 40.9 GB
Phi 4
4.8 GB4.1 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ2_XS
Gemma 3 27B IT
9.1 GB8.4 GB file
32K 16.8 GB · 128K 41.7 GB
Phi 4
5.1 GB4.5 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ2_S
Gemma 3 27B IT
9.4 GB8.8 GB file
32K 17.2 GB · 128K 42.0 GB
Phi 4
5.3 GB4.7 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ2_M
Gemma 3 27B IT
10.2 GB9.6 GB file
32K 17.9 GB · 128K 42.8 GB
Phi 4
5.7 GB5.1 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ3_XXS
Gemma 3 27B IT
11.7 GB10.8 GB file
32K 19.5 GB · 128K 44.3 GB
Phi 4
6.4 GB5.8 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q2_K_S
Gemma 3 27B IT
12.1 GB9.8 GB file
32K 19.8 GB · 128K 44.7 GB
Phi 4
6.6 GB5.2 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ3_XS
Gemma 3 27B IT
12.5 GB11.6 GB file
32K 20.2 GB · 128K 45.1 GB
Phi 4
6.8 GB6.2 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ3_S
Gemma 3 27B IT
12.8 GB12.2 GB file
32K 20.6 GB · 128K 45.4 GB
Phi 4
7.0 GB6.5 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ3_M
Gemma 3 27B IT
13.6 GB12.5 GB file
32K 21.3 GB · 128K 46.2 GB
Phi 4
7.3 GB6.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q3_K_L
Gemma 3 27B IT
15.5 GB14.5 GB file
32K 23.2 GB · 128K 48.1 GB
Phi 4
8.2 GB7.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ4_XS
Gemma 3 27B IT
16.2 GB14.8 GB file
32K 24.0 GB · 128K 48.8 GB
Phi 4
8.6 GB7.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
IQ4_NL
Gemma 3 27B IT
17.0 GB15.6 GB file
32K 24.7 GB · 128K 49.6 GB
Phi 4
9.0 GB8.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q4_1
Gemma 3 27B IT
17.0 GB17.2 GB file
32K 24.7 GB · 128K 49.6 GB
Phi 4
9.0 GB9.3 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q4_K_S
Gemma 3 27B IT
17.0 GB15.7 GB file
32K 24.7 GB · 128K 49.6 GB
Phi 4
9.0 GB8.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q4_K_L
Gemma 3 27B IT
18.5 GB16.9 GB file
32K 26.2 GB · 128K 51.1 GB
Phi 4
9.7 GB9.4 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q5_0
Gemma 3 27B IT
18.9 GB18.8 GB file
32K 26.6 GB · 128K 51.5 GB
Phi 4
9.9 GB10.2 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q5_1
Gemma 3 27B IT
20.8 GB20.4 GB file
32K 28.5 GB · 128K 53.4 GB
Phi 4
not listed
Q5_K_S
Gemma 3 27B IT
20.8 GB18.8 GB file
32K 28.5 GB · 128K 53.4 GB
Phi 4
10.8 GB10.2 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Q5_K_L
Gemma 3 27B IT
21.9 GB19.6 GB file
32K 29.6 GB · 128K 54.5 GB
Phi 4
11.4 GB10.9 GB file
32K — · 128K —
BF16
Gemma 3 27B IT
60.4 GB54.0 GB file
32K 68.1 GB · 128K 93.0 GB
Phi 4
30.0 GB~29.3 GB file
32K — · 128K —
Gemma 3 27B IT
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/gemma-3-27b-it-GGUF:Q4_K_MPhi 4
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/phi-4-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Gemma 3 27B IT | Phi 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Microsoft | |
| Parameters | 27.4B | 14.7B |
| Architecture | — | Phi3ForCausalLM |
| Context | 128K tokens | 16K tokens |
| Modalities | Vision | Chat, Math, Code |
| License | Gemma Terms | MIT |
| Released | Mar 2025 | Dec 2024 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Gemma 3 27B IT or Phi 4?
Phi 4 leads llmrun Score 83.8 to 79.3 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Phi 4 is 1.9× faster on RTX 4090 (~69 vs ~36 tok/s). Choose Gemma 3 27B IT for longer context window and also does vision; choose Phi 4 for higher llmrun Score and fits a 12 GB GPU.
Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 3 27B IT or Phi 4?
At Q4_K_M, Gemma 3 27B IT requires 18.1 GB while Phi 4 needs 9.5 GB, making Phi 4 the easier model to run on your local setup.
Which is faster on RTX 4090?
Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 36 tok/s for Gemma 3 27B IT (Q4_K_M) and 69 tok/s for Phi 4 (Q4_K_M), so Phi 4 is faster. Estimates, ±20%.
Can I run Gemma 3 27B IT or Phi 4 on a 16 GB GPU?
Gemma 3 27B IT fits at Q2_K_S; Phi 4 fits at Q4_K_M.
Which has a longer context window, Gemma 3 27B IT or Phi 4?
Gemma 3 27B IT supports 131,072 tokens and Phi 4 supports 16,384 tokens.