Gemma 3 27B IT vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Gemma 3 27B IT and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 match in llmrun Score, with values of 79.3 versus 78.8; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M.

Model A · Google

Gemma 3 27B IT

79.3llmrun Score

27.4B · 128K context · Gemma Terms · Mar 2025

Vision

Model B · Mistral AI

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

78.8llmrun Score

24.0B · 128K context · Apache 2.0 · Mar 2025

Chat

Which should you choose?

Choose Gemma 3 27B IT if you want…

Also does vision
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 doesn't list it

Choose Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 if you want…

Stronger at reasoning
81.5 vs 73.5
Fits a 16 GB GPU
Q4_K_M · 18.1 GB; Gemma 3 27B IT needs 11.9 GB at its smallest quant
Lighter on memory
15.1 vs 18.1 GB at Q4_K_M
Also does chat
Gemma 3 27B 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%.

MemoryGemma 3 27B ITMistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Gemma 3 27B IT

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 11.9 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 10.3 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Gemma 3 27B IT

IQ2_XXS · ~28 tok/s

11.9 GB · up to 16K

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

IQ2_M · ~27 tok/s

11.8 GB · up to 16K

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Gemma 3 27B IT

Q2_K_S · ~24 tok/s

15.7 GB · up to 16Kmore headroom

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q4_K_M · ~19 tok/stight

18.1 GB · up to 4K

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Gemma 3 27B IT

Q4_K_M · ~36 tok/s

21.7 GB · up to 16K

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q4_K_M · ~43 tok/s

18.1 GB · up to 32Kfaster

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Gemma 3 27B IT

Q4_K_M · ~64 tok/s

21.7 GB · up to 32K

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q4_K_M · ~77 tok/s

18.1 GB · up to 64Kfaster

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Gemma 3 27B IT

Q4_K_M · ~28 tok/s

21.7 GB · up to 64K

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q4_K_M · ~33 tok/s

18.1 GB · up to 128Kfaster

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Gemma 3 27B IT

Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s

21.7 GB · up to 32K

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q4_K_M · ~6 tok/s

18.1 GB · up to 64Kfaster

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Gemma 3 27B IT

Q4_K_M · ~21 tok/s

21.7 GB · up to 128K

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q4_K_M · ~25 tok/s

18.1 GB · up to 128Kfaster

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Gemma 3 27B IT

Q4_K_M · ~21 tok/s

21.7 GB · up to 128K

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q4_K_M · ~25 tok/s

18.1 GB · up to 128Kfaster

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

Gemma 3 27B IT Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Overall

Gemma 3 27B IT

79.375–83

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

78.873–85

Coding

Gemma 3 27B IT

68.753–85

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

no data

Science

Gemma 3 27B IT

80.372–89

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

81.173–90

Reasoning

Gemma 3 27B IT

73.562–85

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

81.571–92

Gemma 3 27B IT · #78 of 92 open models · #24 of 34 that fit 24 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 · #79 of 92 open models · #25 of 34 that fit 24 GB

Benchmarks

8 shared boards: Gemma 3 27B IT leads 4, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 leads 3 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

BoardGemma 3 27B ITMistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

GPQA Diamond

Gemma 3 27B IT

47.7%#56/97 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

47.5%#58/97 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

LMArena Text

Gemma 3 27B IT

1365.4#65/186 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

1302.8#106/186 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

AIME 2024/2025

Gemma 3 27B IT

22.5%#51/85 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

5.8%#66/85 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

SciCode

Gemma 3 27B IT

21.2%#61/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

26.5%#55/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025

MATH Level 5

Gemma 3 27B IT

74.0%#6/39 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

46.8%#16/39 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Chess Puzzles

Gemma 3 27B IT

0.0%#50/67 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

1.0%#43/67 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025

CritPt

Gemma 3 27B IT

0.0%#49/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

0.0%#59/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025

DTBench

Gemma 3 27B IT

52.5%#57/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

58.6%#52/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025

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

Only Gemma 3 27B IT (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.

QuantGemma 3 27B ITMistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Q2_K

Gemma 3 27B IT

12.8 GB10.5 GB file

32K 20.6 GB · 128K 45.4 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

10.9 GB8.9 GB file

32K 17.2 GB · 128K 37.3 GB

Q3_K_S

Gemma 3 27B IT

13.2 GB12.2 GB file

32K 21.0 GB · 128K 45.8 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

11.2 GB10.4 GB file

32K 17.5 GB · 128K 37.6 GB

Q3_K_M

Gemma 3 27B IT

14.7 GB13.4 GB file

32K 22.5 GB · 128K 47.3 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

12.4 GB11.5 GB file

32K 18.7 GB · 128K 38.8 GB

Q4_0

Gemma 3 27B IT

15.1 GB15.6 GB file

32K 22.9 GB · 128K 47.7 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

12.7 GB13.5 GB file

32K 19.0 GB · 128K 39.2 GB

Q4_K_M

Gemma 3 27B IT

18.1 GB16.5 GB file

32K 25.9 GB · 128K 50.7 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

15.1 GB14.3 GB file

32K 21.4 GB · 128K 41.6 GB

Q5_K_M

Gemma 3 27B IT

21.5 GB19.3 GB file

32K 29.3 GB · 128K 54.1 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

17.8 GB16.8 GB file

32K 24.1 GB · 128K 44.3 GB

Q6_K

Gemma 3 27B IT

24.9 GB22.2 GB file

32K 32.7 GB · 128K 57.5 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

20.5 GB19.3 GB file

32K 26.8 GB · 128K 47.0 GB

Q8_0

Gemma 3 27B IT

30.2 GB28.7 GB file

32K 37.9 GB · 128K 62.8 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

24.7 GB25.1 GB file

32K 31.0 GB · 128K 51.2 GB

20 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Gemma 3 27B IT

8.3 GB7.9 GB file

32K 16.1 GB · 128K 40.9 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

7.3 GB6.8 GB file

32K 13.6 GB · 128K 33.7 GB

IQ2_XS

Gemma 3 27B IT

9.1 GB8.4 GB file

32K 16.8 GB · 128K 41.7 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

7.9 GB7.2 GB file

32K 14.2 GB · 128K 34.3 GB

IQ2_S

Gemma 3 27B IT

9.4 GB8.8 GB file

32K 17.2 GB · 128K 42.0 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

8.2 GB7.5 GB file

32K 14.5 GB · 128K 34.6 GB

IQ2_M

Gemma 3 27B IT

10.2 GB9.6 GB file

32K 17.9 GB · 128K 42.8 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

8.8 GB8.2 GB file

32K 15.1 GB · 128K 35.2 GB

IQ3_XXS

Gemma 3 27B IT

11.7 GB10.8 GB file

32K 19.5 GB · 128K 44.3 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

10.0 GB9.4 GB file

32K 16.3 GB · 128K 36.4 GB

Q2_K_S

Gemma 3 27B IT

12.1 GB9.8 GB file

32K 19.8 GB · 128K 44.7 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

10.3 GB8.3 GB file

32K 16.6 GB · 128K 36.7 GB

IQ3_XS

Gemma 3 27B IT

12.5 GB11.6 GB file

32K 20.2 GB · 128K 45.1 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

10.6 GB9.9 GB file

32K 16.9 GB · 128K 37.0 GB

IQ3_S

Gemma 3 27B IT

12.8 GB12.2 GB file

32K 20.6 GB · 128K 45.4 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

10.9 GB10.4 GB file

32K 17.2 GB · 128K 37.3 GB

IQ3_M

Gemma 3 27B IT

13.6 GB12.5 GB file

32K 21.3 GB · 128K 46.2 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

11.5 GB10.7 GB file

32K 17.8 GB · 128K 37.9 GB

Q3_K_L

Gemma 3 27B IT

15.5 GB14.5 GB file

32K 23.2 GB · 128K 48.1 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

13.0 GB12.4 GB file

32K 19.3 GB · 128K 39.5 GB

IQ4_XS

Gemma 3 27B IT

16.2 GB14.8 GB file

32K 24.0 GB · 128K 48.8 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

13.6 GB12.8 GB file

32K 19.9 GB · 128K 40.1 GB

IQ4_NL

Gemma 3 27B IT

17.0 GB15.6 GB file

32K 24.7 GB · 128K 49.6 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

14.2 GB13.5 GB file

32K 20.5 GB · 128K 40.7 GB

Q4_1

Gemma 3 27B IT

17.0 GB17.2 GB file

32K 24.7 GB · 128K 49.6 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

14.2 GB14.9 GB file

32K 20.5 GB · 128K 40.7 GB

Q4_K_S

Gemma 3 27B IT

17.0 GB15.7 GB file

32K 24.7 GB · 128K 49.6 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

14.2 GB13.5 GB file

32K 20.5 GB · 128K 40.7 GB

Q4_K_L

Gemma 3 27B IT

18.5 GB16.9 GB file

32K 26.2 GB · 128K 51.1 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

15.4 GB14.8 GB file

32K 21.7 GB · 128K 41.9 GB

Q5_0

Gemma 3 27B IT

18.9 GB18.8 GB file

32K 26.6 GB · 128K 51.5 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

15.7 GB16.3 GB file

32K 22.0 GB · 128K 42.2 GB

Q5_1

Gemma 3 27B IT

20.8 GB20.4 GB file

32K 28.5 GB · 128K 53.4 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

not listed

Q5_K_S

Gemma 3 27B IT

20.8 GB18.8 GB file

32K 28.5 GB · 128K 53.4 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

17.2 GB16.3 GB file

32K 23.5 GB · 128K 43.7 GB

Q5_K_L

Gemma 3 27B IT

21.9 GB19.6 GB file

32K 29.6 GB · 128K 54.5 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

18.1 GB17.2 GB file

32K 24.4 GB · 128K 44.6 GB

BF16

Gemma 3 27B IT

60.4 GB54.0 GB file

32K 68.1 GB · 128K 93.0 GB

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

48.7 GB47.2 GB file

32K 55.0 GB · 128K 75.2 GB

How to run each

Gemma 3 27B IT

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/gemma-3-27b-it-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Gemma 3 27B IT →

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Mistral-Small-3.1-24B-Instruct-2503-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 →

Specifications

Specifications of Gemma 3 27B IT and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503
Spec	Gemma 3 27B IT	Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503
Publisher	Google	Mistral AI
Parameters	27.4B	24.0B
Architecture	—	Mistral3ForConditionalGeneration
Context	128K tokens	128K tokens
Modalities	Vision	Chat
License	Gemma Terms	Apache 2.0
Released	Mar 2025	Mar 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503?

Gemma 3 27B IT and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 match in llmrun Score, with values of 79.3 versus 78.8; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M. Choose Gemma 3 27B IT for also does vision; choose Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 for stronger at reasoning and fits a 16 GB GPU.

Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503?

At Q4_K_M, Gemma 3 27B IT requires 18.1 GB while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 needs 15.1 GB, making Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 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 43 tok/s for Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 (Q4_K_M), so Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 is faster. Estimates, ±20%.

Can I run Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 on a 16 GB GPU?

Gemma 3 27B IT fits at Q2_K_S; Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 fits at Q4_K_M.

Which has a longer context window, Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503?

Gemma 3 27B IT supports 131,072 tokens and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 2503 supports 131,072 tokens.