Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B leads llmrun Score 102.1 to 77.9; neither fits 24 GB.

Run Mistral Medium 3.5 128B in the cloud →

Model A · Meta

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

77.9llmrun Score

70.6B · 128K context · Llama 3.1 Community · Jul 2024

ChatFunctions

Model B · Mistral AI

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

102.1llmrun Score

127.7B · 256K context · Other · Mar 2026

ChatFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose Llama 3.1 70B Instruct if you want…

Fits a 48 GB GPU
Q4_K_M · 51.3 GB; Mistral Medium 3.5 128B needs 41.3 GB at its smallest quant
Lighter on memory
46.6 vs 77.7 GB at Q4_K_M

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 128B if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
102.1 vs 77.9
Stronger at reasoning
101.5 vs 83.2
Ahead on the benchmarks
3 of 3 shared boards
Longer context window
256K vs 128K tokens
Newer release
Mar 2026 vs Jul 2024

On your hardware

Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.

MemoryLlama 3.1 70B InstructMistral Medium 3.5 128B

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 26.1 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 41.3 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 26.1 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 41.3 GB

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 26.1 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 41.3 GB

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 26.1 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 41.3 GB

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

IQ2_M · ~45 tok/s

30.9 GB · up to 16Kfits

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 41.3 GB

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~11 tok/stight

51.3 GB · up to 4K

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

IQ2_S · ~12 tok/s

46.1 GB · up to 16Kmore headroom

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

IQ2_XS · ~4 tok/s

28 GB · up to 16Kfits

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 41.3 GB

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~8 tok/s

51.3 GB · up to 32Kmore headroom

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

IQ3_S · ~7 tok/s

60.5 GB · up to 16K

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~8 tok/s

51.3 GB · up to 128Kfaster

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s

82.8 GB · up to 128K

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

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Overall

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

77.973–83

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

102.197–107

Coding

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

no data

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

102.296–108

Science

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

no data

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

101.380–123

Reasoning

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

83.274–93

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

101.593–110

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct · #93 of 106 open models · #39 of 51 that fit ≤64 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B · #53 of 106 open models · #20 of 62 that fit ≤96 GB

Benchmarks

3 shared boards: Llama 3.1 70B Instruct leads 0, Mistral Medium 3.5 128B leads 3 · Benchmarks imported Nov 2026

BoardLlama 3.1 70B InstructMistral Medium 3.5 128B

WeirdML

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

9.0%#45/47 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

43.7%#16/47 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2026

DTBench

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

60.0%#50/70 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

75.5%#30/70 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2026

LMCA

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

14.8%#44/56 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

26.1%#28/56 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2026

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

LMArena Text

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

1293.4#110/188 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

1426.4#28/188 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Only Llama 3.1 70B Instruct (6)

Only Mistral Medium 3.5 128B (7)

VRAM by quantization

Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.

QuantLlama 3.1 70B InstructMistral Medium 3.5 128B

Q2_K

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

33.0 GB26.4 GB file

32K 43.1 GB · 128K 75.5 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

55.3 GB46.6 GB file

32K 66.4 GB · 128K 102 GB

Q3_K_S

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

34.0 GB30.9 GB file

32K 44.1 GB · 128K 76.4 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

56.9 GB54.4 GB file

32K 68.0 GB · 128K 103 GB

Q3_K_M

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

37.8 GB34.3 GB file

32K 48.0 GB · 128K 80.3 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

63.3 GB60.6 GB file

32K 74.4 GB · 128K 110 GB

Q4_0

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

38.8 GB40.1 GB file

32K 48.9 GB · 128K 81.3 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

64.9 GB71.0 GB file

32K 76.0 GB · 128K 111 GB

Q4_K_M

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

46.6 GB42.5 GB file

32K 56.7 GB · 128K 89.1 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

77.7 GB74.9 GB file

32K 88.7 GB · 128K 124 GB

Q5_K_M

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

55.3 GB49.9 GB file

32K 65.4 GB · 128K 97.8 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

92.0 GB88.3 GB file

32K 103 GB · 128K 139 GB

Q6_K

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

64.0 GB57.9 GB file

32K 74.2 GB · 128K 107 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

106 GB102.6 GB file

32K 117 GB · 128K 153 GB

Q8_0

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

77.6 GB75.0 GB file

32K 87.7 GB · 128K 120 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

129 GB132.9 GB file

32K 140 GB · 128K 175 GB

19 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

21.3 GB19.1 GB file

32K 31.5 GB · 128K 63.8 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

36.2 GB34.9 GB file

32K 47.2 GB · 128K 82.7 GB

IQ2_XS

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

23.3 GB21.1 GB file

32K 33.4 GB · 128K 65.8 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

39.4 GB43.4 GB file

32K 50.4 GB · 128K 85.9 GB

IQ2_S

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

24.3 GB22.2 GB file

32K 34.4 GB · 128K 66.7 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

41.0 GB46.1 GB file

32K 52.0 GB · 128K 87.5 GB

IQ2_M

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

26.2 GB24.1 GB file

32K 36.3 GB · 128K 68.7 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

44.1 GB44.1 GB file

32K 55.2 GB · 128K 90.7 GB

IQ3_XXS

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

30.1 GB27.5 GB file

32K 40.2 GB · 128K 72.6 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

50.5 GB49.3 GB file

32K 61.6 GB · 128K 97.0 GB

Q2_K_S

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

not listed

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

52.1 GB43.0 GB file

32K 63.2 GB · 128K 98.6 GB

IQ3_XS

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

32.0 GB29.3 GB file

32K 42.1 GB · 128K 74.5 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

53.7 GB54.9 GB file

32K 64.8 GB · 128K 100 GB

IQ3_S

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

33.0 GB30.9 GB file

32K 43.1 GB · 128K 75.5 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

55.3 GB54.5 GB file

32K 66.4 GB · 128K 102 GB

IQ3_M

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

34.9 GB31.9 GB file

32K 45.0 GB · 128K 77.4 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

58.5 GB59.5 GB file

32K 69.6 GB · 128K 105 GB

Q3_K_L

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

39.8 GB37.1 GB file

32K 49.9 GB · 128K 82.3 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

66.5 GB67.0 GB file

32K 77.6 GB · 128K 113 GB

IQ4_XS

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

41.7 GB37.9 GB file

32K 51.8 GB · 128K 84.2 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

69.7 GB67.1 GB file

32K 80.8 GB · 128K 116 GB

IQ4_NL

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

not listed

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

72.9 GB70.9 GB file

32K 83.9 GB · 128K 119 GB

Q4_1

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

not listed

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

72.9 GB78.5 GB file

32K 83.9 GB · 128K 119 GB

Q4_K_S

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

43.7 GB40.3 GB file

32K 53.8 GB · 128K 86.2 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

72.9 GB71.2 GB file

32K 83.9 GB · 128K 119 GB

Q4_K_L

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

47.5 GB43.3 GB file

32K 57.7 GB · 128K 90.0 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

79.3 GB79.6 GB file

32K 90.3 GB · 128K 126 GB

Q5_0

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

48.5 GB48.7 GB file

32K 58.6 GB · 128K 91.0 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

not listed

Q5_K_S

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

53.4 GB48.7 GB file

32K 63.5 GB · 128K 95.9 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

88.8 GB86.2 GB file

32K 99.9 GB · 128K 135 GB

Q5_K_L

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

56.3 GB50.6 GB file

32K 66.4 GB · 128K 98.8 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

93.6 GB92.1 GB file

32K 105 GB · 128K 140 GB

BF16

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

155 GB~141.1 GB file

32K 165 GB · 128K 198 GB

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

256 GB250.1 GB file

32K 268 GB · 128K 303 GB

How to run each

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/bartowski/Meta-Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Llama 3.1 70B Instruct →

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Mistral-Medium-3.5-128B-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Mistral Medium 3.5 128B →

Specifications

Specifications of Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Spec	Llama 3.1 70B Instruct	Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Publisher	Meta	Mistral AI
Parameters	70.6B	127.7B
Architecture	—	Mistral3ForConditionalGeneration
Context	128K tokens	256K tokens
Modalities	Chat, Function-calling	Chat, Function-calling
License	Llama 3.1 Community	Other
Released	Jul 2024	Mar 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 128B?

Mistral Medium 3.5 128B leads llmrun Score 102.1 to 77.9; neither fits 24 GB. Choose Llama 3.1 70B Instruct for fits a 48 GB GPU and lighter on memory; choose Mistral Medium 3.5 128B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at reasoning.

Which needs less VRAM, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 128B?

At Q4_K_M, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct requires 46.6 GB while Mistral Medium 3.5 128B needs 77.7 GB, making Llama 3.1 70B Instruct the easier model to run on your local setup.

Can I run Llama 3.1 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 128B on a 16 GB GPU?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct does not fit (smallest quant needs 26.1 GB); Mistral Medium 3.5 128B does not fit (smallest quant needs 41.3 GB).

Which has a longer context window, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 128B?

Llama 3.1 70B Instruct supports 131,072 tokens and Mistral Medium 3.5 128B supports 262,144 tokens.