Gemma 3 4B IT vs Qwen3.5 9B
Qwen3.5 9B leads llmrun Score 99.4 to 64.0; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Gemma 3 4B IT is 2.2× faster on RTX 4090 (~231 vs ~103 tok/s).
Model B · Alibaba
Qwen3.5 9B9.7B · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Feb 2026
Choose Gemma 3 4B IT if you want…
2.2× faster on RTX 4090
~231 vs ~103 tok/s
Lighter on memory
2.8 vs 6.4 GB at Q4_K_M
Choose Qwen3.5 9B if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
99.4 vs 64.0
Stronger at reasoning
97.1 vs 68.5
Ahead on the benchmarks
6 of 6 shared boards
Also does function-calling
Gemma 3 4B IT doesn't list it
More permissive license
Apache 2.0 vs Gemma Terms
Newer release
Feb 2026 vs Feb 2025
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 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~62 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Qwen3.5 9B
Q4_K_M · ~28 tok/s
6.6 GB · up to 32K
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Gemma 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~82 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
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 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~103 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Qwen3.5 9B
Q4_K_M · ~46 tok/s
6.6 GB · up to 256K
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Gemma 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~231 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Qwen3.5 9B
Q4_K_M · ~103 tok/s
6.6 GB · up to 256K
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Gemma 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~410 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Qwen3.5 9B
Q4_K_M · ~183 tok/s
6.6 GB · up to 256K
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Gemma 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~176 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Qwen3.5 9B
Q4_K_M · ~79 tok/s
6.6 GB · up to 256K
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Gemma 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~30 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Qwen3.5 9B
Q4_K_M · ~13 tok/s
6.6 GB · up to 256K
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~135 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Qwen3.5 9B
Q4_K_M · ~60 tok/s
6.6 GB · up to 256K
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Gemma 3 4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~135 tok/s
5 GB · up to 32Kfaster
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).
Overall
Gemma 3 4B IT
Qwen3.5 9B
Science
Gemma 3 4B IT
no data
Qwen3.5 9B
Reasoning
Gemma 3 4B IT
Qwen3.5 9B
Gemma 3 4B IT · #87 of 92 open models · #30 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Qwen3.5 9B · #49 of 92 open models · #10 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Gemma 3 4B IT
23.2%#92/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Qwen3.5 9B
79.0%#25/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026
Gemma 3 4B IT
7.5%#63/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Qwen3.5 9B
61.7%#36/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026
Gemma 3 4B IT
43.6%#91/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Qwen3.5 9B
82.5%#17/144 open
IndependentTIGER-Lab
Gemma 3 4B IT
0.0%#51/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Qwen3.5 9B
12.0%#23/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026
Gemma 3 4B IT
50.9%#58/68 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Qwen3.5 9B
71.2%#31/68 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Feb 2026
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.8%#54/54 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2025
Qwen3.5 9B
24.5%#28/54 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Feb 2026
4 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Only Gemma 3 4B IT (1)
- LMArena Text1303.3
Only Qwen3.5 9B (3)
- Terminal-Bench9.2%
- SciCode27.6%
- CritPt0.3%
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 4B IT
2.0 GB1.7 GB file
32K 6.6 GB · 128K 21.4 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
4.7 GB4.3 GB file
32K 5.5 GB · 128K 8.7 GB
Q3_K_S
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.1 GB1.9 GB file
32K 6.7 GB · 128K 21.5 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
4.8 GB4.3 GB file
32K 5.6 GB · 128K 8.8 GB
Q3_K_M
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.3 GB2.1 GB file
32K 6.9 GB · 128K 21.7 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
5.3 GB4.7 GB file
32K 6.1 GB · 128K 9.3 GB
Q4_0
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.4 GB2.4 GB file
32K 7.0 GB · 128K 21.8 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
5.4 GB5.4 GB file
32K 6.2 GB · 128K 9.4 GB
Q4_K_M
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.8 GB2.5 GB file
32K 7.5 GB · 128K 22.3 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
6.4 GB5.7 GB file
32K 7.2 GB · 128K 10.4 GB
Q5_K_M
Gemma 3 4B IT
3.4 GB2.8 GB file
32K 8.0 GB · 128K 22.8 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
7.5 GB6.6 GB file
32K 8.3 GB · 128K 11.5 GB
Q6_K
Gemma 3 4B IT
3.9 GB3.2 GB file
32K 8.5 GB · 128K 23.3 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
8.5 GB7.5 GB file
32K 9.3 GB · 128K 12.6 GB
Q8_0
Gemma 3 4B IT
4.7 GB4.1 GB file
32K 9.4 GB · 128K 24.1 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
10.2 GB9.5 GB file
32K 11.0 GB · 128K 14.3 GB
19 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Gemma 3 4B IT
1.3 GB1.3 GB file
32K 5.9 GB · 128K 20.7 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
3.2 GB3.2 GB file
32K 4.0 GB · 128K 7.3 GB
IQ2_XS
Gemma 3 4B IT
1.4 GB1.4 GB file
32K 6.0 GB · 128K 20.8 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
not listed
IQ2_S
Gemma 3 4B IT
1.5 GB1.4 GB file
32K 6.1 GB · 128K 20.9 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
3.6 GB3.5 GB file
32K 4.4 GB · 128K 7.6 GB
IQ2_M
Gemma 3 4B IT
1.6 GB1.6 GB file
32K 6.2 GB · 128K 21.0 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
3.8 GB3.6 GB file
32K 4.6 GB · 128K 7.9 GB
IQ3_XXS
Gemma 3 4B IT
1.8 GB1.7 GB file
32K 6.5 GB · 128K 21.2 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
4.3 GB4.0 GB file
32K 5.1 GB · 128K 8.3 GB
Q2_K_S
Gemma 3 4B IT
1.9 GB1.6 GB file
32K 6.5 GB · 128K 21.3 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
not listed
IQ3_XS
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.0 GB1.9 GB file
32K 6.6 GB · 128K 21.4 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
4.6 GB4.8 GB file
32K 5.4 GB · 128K 8.6 GB
IQ3_S
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.0 GB1.9 GB file
32K 6.6 GB · 128K 21.4 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
4.7 GB3.2 GB file
32K 5.5 GB · 128K 8.7 GB
IQ3_M
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.1 GB2.0 GB file
32K 6.8 GB · 128K 21.5 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
4.9 GB5.0 GB file
32K 5.7 GB · 128K 8.9 GB
Q3_K_L
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.4 GB2.2 GB file
32K 7.0 GB · 128K 21.8 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
5.5 GB5.4 GB file
32K 6.3 GB · 128K 9.6 GB
IQ4_XS
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.5 GB2.3 GB file
32K 7.2 GB · 128K 22.0 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
5.8 GB5.2 GB file
32K 6.6 GB · 128K 9.8 GB
IQ4_NL
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.7 GB2.4 GB file
32K 7.3 GB · 128K 22.1 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
6.0 GB5.4 GB file
32K 6.8 GB · 128K 10.0 GB
Q4_1
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.7 GB2.6 GB file
32K 7.3 GB · 128K 22.1 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
6.0 GB5.8 GB file
32K 6.8 GB · 128K 10.0 GB
Q4_K_S
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.7 GB2.4 GB file
32K 7.3 GB · 128K 22.1 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
6.0 GB5.4 GB file
32K 6.8 GB · 128K 10.0 GB
Q4_K_L
Gemma 3 4B IT
2.9 GB2.7 GB file
32K 7.5 GB · 128K 22.3 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
6.5 GB6.9 GB file
32K 7.3 GB · 128K 10.5 GB
Q5_0
Gemma 3 4B IT
3.0 GB2.8 GB file
32K 7.6 GB · 128K 22.4 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
not listed
Q5_K_S
Gemma 3 4B IT
3.3 GB2.8 GB file
32K 7.9 GB · 128K 22.7 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
7.2 GB6.4 GB file
32K 8.0 GB · 128K 11.2 GB
Q5_K_L
Gemma 3 4B IT
3.4 GB3.0 GB file
32K 8.1 GB · 128K 22.8 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
7.6 GB7.7 GB file
32K 8.4 GB · 128K 11.6 GB
BF16
Gemma 3 4B IT
9.5 GB7.8 GB file
32K 14.1 GB · 128K 28.9 GB
Qwen3.5 9B
19.9 GB17.9 GB file
32K 20.7 GB · 128K 23.9 GB
Gemma 3 4B IT
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/gemma-3-4b-it-GGUF:Q4_K_MQwen3.5 9B
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Gemma 3 4B IT | Qwen3.5 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Alibaba | |
| Parameters | 4.3B | 9.7B |
| Architecture | — | Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration |
| Context | — | 256K tokens |
| Modalities | Vision | Vision, Function-calling |
| License | Gemma Terms | Apache 2.0 |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Feb 2026 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Gemma 3 4B IT or Qwen3.5 9B?
Qwen3.5 9B leads llmrun Score 99.4 to 64.0; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Gemma 3 4B IT is 2.2× faster on RTX 4090 (~231 vs ~103 tok/s). Choose Gemma 3 4B IT for 2.2× faster on RTX 4090 and lighter on memory; choose Qwen3.5 9B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at reasoning.
Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 3 4B IT or Qwen3.5 9B?
At Q4_K_M, Gemma 3 4B IT requires 2.8 GB while Qwen3.5 9B needs 6.4 GB, making Gemma 3 4B IT the easier model to run on your local setup.
Which is faster on RTX 4090?
Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 231 tok/s for Gemma 3 4B IT (Q4_K_M) and 103 tok/s for Qwen3.5 9B (Q4_K_M), so Gemma 3 4B IT is faster. Estimates, ±20%.
Can I run Gemma 3 4B IT or Qwen3.5 9B on a 16 GB GPU?
Gemma 3 4B IT fits at Q4_K_M; Qwen3.5 9B fits at Q4_K_M.