Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct leads llmrun Score 65.1 to 62.5 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M.
Model A · Meta
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct8.0B · 128K context · Llama 3.1 Community · Jul 2024
Model B · Alibaba
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct7.6B · 32K context · Apache 2.0 · Sep 2024
Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct if you want…
Longer context window
128K vs 32K tokens
Choose Qwen2.5 7B Instruct if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
65.1 vs 62.5, ranges overlap
Ahead on the benchmarks
4 of 6 shared boards
More permissive license
Apache 2.0 vs Llama 3.1 Community
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
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~33 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 16K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~35 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~44 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 32K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~47 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~55 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 32K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~58 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~124 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 64K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~131 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~220 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 128K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~233 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~94 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 128K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~100 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~16 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 128K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~17 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~72 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 128K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~77 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~72 tok/s
7.9 GB · up to 128K
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~77 tok/s
5.8 GB · up to 32K
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Coding
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
no data
Science
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
no data
Reasoning
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct · #88 of 92 open models · #31 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct · #86 of 92 open models · #29 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Benchmarks
6 shared boards: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct leads 1, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct leads 4 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
27.0%#86/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
35.5%#74/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Sep 2024
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
1.7%#76/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
2.5%#74/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Sep 2024
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
56.1%#55/85 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
72.9%#24/85 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Sep 2024
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
0.0%#57/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
0.0%#64/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Sep 2024
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
50.9%#59/68 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
47.7%#64/68 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Sep 2024
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
5.4%#51/54 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
6.4%#50/54 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Sep 2024
10 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
15.1%#9/15 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
7.8%#13/15 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Sep 2024
Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (9)
- LMArena Text1211.3
- MMLU-Pro44.3%
- SciCode13.2%
- MATH Level 522.9%
- WeirdML1.7%
- CritPt0.0%
- GSM8K82.4%
- PIQA81.2%
- BoolQ82.8%
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
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
3.8 GB3.2 GB file
32K 9.3 GB · 128K 26.9 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.7 GB3.0 GB file
32K 5.4 GB · 128K —
Q3_K_S
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
3.9 GB3.7 GB file
32K 9.4 GB · 128K 27.0 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.8 GB3.5 GB file
32K 5.5 GB · 128K —
Q3_K_M
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
4.3 GB4.0 GB file
32K 9.8 GB · 128K 27.4 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
4.1 GB3.8 GB file
32K 5.9 GB · 128K —
Q4_0
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
4.4 GB4.7 GB file
32K 9.9 GB · 128K 27.5 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
4.2 GB4.4 GB file
32K 6.0 GB · 128K —
Q4_K_M
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
5.3 GB4.9 GB file
32K 10.8 GB · 128K 28.4 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
5.0 GB4.7 GB file
32K 6.8 GB · 128K —
Q5_K_M
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
6.3 GB5.7 GB file
32K 11.8 GB · 128K 29.4 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
5.8 GB5.4 GB file
32K 7.6 GB · 128K —
Q6_K
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
7.3 GB6.6 GB file
32K 12.8 GB · 128K 30.4 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
6.7 GB6.3 GB file
32K 8.5 GB · 128K —
Q8_0
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
8.8 GB8.5 GB file
32K 14.3 GB · 128K 32.0 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
8.0 GB8.1 GB file
32K 9.8 GB · 128K —
20 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
2.4 GB2.5 GB file
32K 7.9 GB · 128K 25.6 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
2.5 GB2.3 GB file
32K 4.3 GB · 128K —
IQ2_XS
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
2.7 GB2.6 GB file
32K 8.2 GB · 128K 25.8 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
2.7 GB2.5 GB file
32K 4.5 GB · 128K —
IQ2_S
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
2.8 GB2.8 GB file
32K 8.3 GB · 128K 25.9 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
2.8 GB2.6 GB file
32K 4.6 GB · 128K —
IQ2_M
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
3.0 GB2.9 GB file
32K 8.5 GB · 128K 26.1 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.0 GB2.8 GB file
32K 4.8 GB · 128K —
IQ3_XXS
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
3.4 GB3.3 GB file
32K 8.9 GB · 128K 26.5 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.4 GB3.1 GB file
32K 5.1 GB · 128K —
Q2_K_S
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
3.5 GB3.0 GB file
32K 9.0 GB · 128K 26.7 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.5 GB2.8 GB file
32K 5.2 GB · 128K —
IQ3_XS
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
3.6 GB3.5 GB file
32K 9.1 GB · 128K 26.8 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.6 GB3.3 GB file
32K 5.3 GB · 128K —
IQ3_S
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
3.8 GB3.7 GB file
32K 9.3 GB · 128K 26.9 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.7 GB3.5 GB file
32K 5.4 GB · 128K —
IQ3_M
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
4.0 GB3.8 GB file
32K 9.5 GB · 128K 27.1 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
3.8 GB3.6 GB file
32K 5.6 GB · 128K —
Q3_K_L
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
4.5 GB4.3 GB file
32K 10.0 GB · 128K 27.7 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
4.3 GB4.1 GB file
32K 6.1 GB · 128K —
IQ4_XS
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
4.8 GB4.4 GB file
32K 10.3 GB · 128K 27.9 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
4.5 GB4.2 GB file
32K 6.3 GB · 128K —
IQ4_NL
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
5.0 GB4.7 GB file
32K 10.5 GB · 128K 28.1 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
4.7 GB4.4 GB file
32K 6.5 GB · 128K —
Q4_1
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
5.0 GB5.1 GB file
32K 10.5 GB · 128K 28.1 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
4.7 GB4.9 GB file
32K 6.5 GB · 128K —
Q4_K_S
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
5.0 GB4.7 GB file
32K 10.5 GB · 128K 28.1 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
4.7 GB4.5 GB file
32K 6.5 GB · 128K —
Q4_K_L
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
5.4 GB5.3 GB file
32K 10.9 GB · 128K 28.5 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
5.1 GB5.1 GB file
32K 6.8 GB · 128K —
Q5_0
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
5.5 GB5.6 GB file
32K 11.0 GB · 128K 28.6 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
5.2 GB5.3 GB file
32K 6.9 GB · 128K —
Q5_1
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
6.1 GB6.1 GB file
32K 11.6 GB · 128K 29.2 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
5.7 GB5.8 GB file
32K 7.4 GB · 128K —
Q5_K_S
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
6.1 GB5.6 GB file
32K 11.6 GB · 128K 29.2 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
5.7 GB5.3 GB file
32K 7.4 GB · 128K —
Q5_K_L
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
6.4 GB6.1 GB file
32K 11.9 GB · 128K 29.5 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
5.9 GB5.8 GB file
32K 7.7 GB · 128K —
BF16
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
17.7 GB16.1 GB file
32K 23.2 GB · 128K 40.8 GB
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
15.7 GB~15.2 GB file
32K 17.4 GB · 128K —
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/bartowski/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_MQwen2.5 7B Instruct
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/bartowski/Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Meta | Alibaba |
| Parameters | 8.0B | 7.6B |
| Architecture | — | Qwen2ForCausalLM |
| Context | 128K tokens | 32K tokens |
| Modalities | Chat, Function-calling | Chat, Function-calling |
| License | Llama 3.1 Community | Apache 2.0 |
| Released | Jul 2024 | Sep 2024 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct leads llmrun Score 65.1 to 62.5 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M. Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for longer context window; choose Qwen2.5 7B Instruct for higher llmrun Score and ahead on the benchmarks.
Which needs less VRAM, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?
At Q4_K_M, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct requires 5.3 GB while Qwen2.5 7B Instruct needs 5.0 GB, making Qwen2.5 7B Instruct the easier model to run on your local setup.
Which is faster on RTX 4090?
Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 124 tok/s for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (Q4_K_M) and 131 tok/s for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (Q4_K_M), so Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is faster. Estimates, ±20%.
Can I run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct on a 16 GB GPU?
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct fits at Q4_K_M; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct fits at Q4_K_M.
Which has a longer context window, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports 131,072 tokens and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct supports 32,768 tokens.