Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Qwen3 8B

Qwen3 8B leads llmrun Score 93.8 to 62.5; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M.

Model A · Meta

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

62.5llmrun Score

8.0B · 128K context · Llama 3.1 Community · Jul 2024

ChatFunctions

Model B · Alibaba

Qwen3 8B

93.8llmrun Score

8.2B · 40K context · Apache 2.0 · Apr 2025

ChatFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct if you want…

Longer context window
128K vs 40K tokens

Choose Qwen3 8B if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
93.8 vs 62.5
Stronger at science
87.7 vs 55.5
Stronger at reasoning
81.1 vs 69.3
Ahead on the benchmarks
6 of 7 shared boards
More permissive license
Apache 2.0 vs Llama 3.1 Community
Newer release
Apr 2025 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 8B InstructQwen3 8B

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~33 tok/s

7.9 GB · up to 16K

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~32 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 16K

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

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~42 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

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

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~53 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~124 tok/s

7.9 GB · up to 64K

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~119 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~220 tok/s

7.9 GB · up to 128K

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~211 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~94 tok/s

7.9 GB · up to 128K

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~90 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~16 tok/s

7.9 GB · up to 128K

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~15 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

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

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~69 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

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

Qwen3 8B

Q4_K_M · ~69 tok/s

7.6 GB · up to 40K

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 8B Instruct Qwen3 8B

Overall

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

62.556–70

Qwen3 8B

93.891–97

Coding

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

55.933–79

Qwen3 8B

no data

Science

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

55.536–76

Qwen3 8B

87.780–95

Reasoning

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

69.356–82

Qwen3 8B

81.172–91

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct · #88 of 92 open models · #31 of 34 that fit 24 GB

Qwen3 8B · #62 of 92 open models · #18 of 34 that fit 24 GB

Benchmarks

7 shared boards: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct leads 0, Qwen3 8B leads 6 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

BoardLlama 3.1 8B InstructQwen3 8B

GPQA Diamond

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

27.0%#86/97 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Qwen3 8B

56.8%#43/97 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

AIME 2024/2025

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

1.7%#76/85 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Qwen3 8B

56.1%#39/85 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

SciCode

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

13.2%#64/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Qwen3 8B

22.6%#60/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Chess Puzzles

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

0.0%#57/67 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Qwen3 8B

5.0%#31/67 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

CritPt

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

0.0%#52/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Qwen3 8B

0.0%#63/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

DTBench

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

50.9%#59/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Qwen3 8B

59.7%#50/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

LMCA

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

5.4%#51/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2024

Qwen3 8B

8.8%#49/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

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

Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (9)

LMArena Text1211.3
MMLU-Pro44.3%
MATH Level 522.9%
MMLU56.1%
WeirdML1.7%
BALROG15.1%
GSM8K82.4%
PIQA81.2%
BoolQ82.8%

Only Qwen3 8B (1)

Fiction.LiveBench62.1%

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 8B InstructQwen3 8B

Q2_K

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

3.8 GB3.2 GB file

32K 9.3 GB · 128K 26.9 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.1 GB3.3 GB file

32K 8.6 GB · 128K —

Q3_K_S

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

3.9 GB3.7 GB file

32K 9.4 GB · 128K 27.0 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.2 GB3.8 GB file

32K 8.7 GB · 128K —

Q3_K_M

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

4.3 GB4.0 GB file

32K 9.8 GB · 128K 27.4 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.6 GB4.1 GB file

32K 9.1 GB · 128K —

Q4_0

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

4.4 GB4.7 GB file

32K 9.9 GB · 128K 27.5 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.7 GB4.8 GB file

32K 9.2 GB · 128K —

Q4_K_M

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

5.3 GB4.9 GB file

32K 10.8 GB · 128K 28.4 GB

Qwen3 8B

5.5 GB5.0 GB file

32K 10.1 GB · 128K —

Q5_K_M

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

6.3 GB5.7 GB file

32K 11.8 GB · 128K 29.4 GB

Qwen3 8B

6.4 GB5.9 GB file

32K 11.0 GB · 128K —

Q6_K

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

7.3 GB6.6 GB file

32K 12.8 GB · 128K 30.4 GB

Qwen3 8B

7.4 GB6.7 GB file

32K 11.9 GB · 128K —

Q8_0

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

8.8 GB8.5 GB file

32K 14.3 GB · 128K 32.0 GB

Qwen3 8B

8.8 GB8.7 GB file

32K 13.3 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

Qwen3 8B

2.9 GB2.6 GB file

32K 7.4 GB · 128K —

IQ2_XS

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

2.7 GB2.6 GB file

32K 8.2 GB · 128K 25.8 GB

Qwen3 8B

3.1 GB2.7 GB file

32K 7.6 GB · 128K —

IQ2_S

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

2.8 GB2.8 GB file

32K 8.3 GB · 128K 25.9 GB

Qwen3 8B

3.2 GB2.9 GB file

32K 7.7 GB · 128K —

IQ2_M

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

3.0 GB2.9 GB file

32K 8.5 GB · 128K 26.1 GB

Qwen3 8B

3.4 GB3.1 GB file

32K 7.9 GB · 128K —

IQ3_XXS

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

3.4 GB3.3 GB file

32K 8.9 GB · 128K 26.5 GB

Qwen3 8B

3.8 GB3.4 GB file

32K 8.3 GB · 128K —

Q2_K_S

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

3.5 GB3.0 GB file

32K 9.0 GB · 128K 26.7 GB

Qwen3 8B

3.9 GB3.1 GB file

32K 8.4 GB · 128K —

IQ3_XS

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

3.6 GB3.5 GB file

32K 9.1 GB · 128K 26.8 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.0 GB3.6 GB file

32K 8.5 GB · 128K —

IQ3_S

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

3.8 GB3.7 GB file

32K 9.3 GB · 128K 26.9 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.1 GB3.8 GB file

32K 8.6 GB · 128K —

IQ3_M

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

4.0 GB3.8 GB file

32K 9.5 GB · 128K 27.1 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.3 GB3.9 GB file

32K 8.8 GB · 128K —

Q3_K_L

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

4.5 GB4.3 GB file

32K 10.0 GB · 128K 27.7 GB

Qwen3 8B

4.8 GB4.4 GB file

32K 9.3 GB · 128K —

IQ4_XS

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

4.8 GB4.4 GB file

32K 10.3 GB · 128K 27.9 GB

Qwen3 8B

5.0 GB4.6 GB file

32K 9.5 GB · 128K —

IQ4_NL

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

5.0 GB4.7 GB file

32K 10.5 GB · 128K 28.1 GB

Qwen3 8B

5.2 GB4.8 GB file

32K 9.7 GB · 128K —

Q4_1

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

5.0 GB5.1 GB file

32K 10.5 GB · 128K 28.1 GB

Qwen3 8B

5.2 GB5.2 GB file

32K 9.7 GB · 128K —

Q4_K_S

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

5.0 GB4.7 GB file

32K 10.5 GB · 128K 28.1 GB

Qwen3 8B

5.2 GB4.8 GB file

32K 9.7 GB · 128K —

Q4_K_L

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

5.4 GB5.3 GB file

32K 10.9 GB · 128K 28.5 GB

Qwen3 8B

5.6 GB5.5 GB file

32K 10.2 GB · 128K —

Q5_0

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

5.5 GB5.6 GB file

32K 11.0 GB · 128K 28.6 GB

Qwen3 8B

5.7 GB5.7 GB file

32K 10.3 GB · 128K —

Q5_1

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

6.1 GB6.1 GB file

32K 11.6 GB · 128K 29.2 GB

Qwen3 8B

not listed

Q5_K_S

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

6.1 GB5.6 GB file

32K 11.6 GB · 128K 29.2 GB

Qwen3 8B

6.2 GB5.7 GB file

32K 10.8 GB · 128K —

Q5_K_L

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

6.4 GB6.1 GB file

32K 11.9 GB · 128K 29.5 GB

Qwen3 8B

6.5 GB6.2 GB file

32K 11.1 GB · 128K —

BF16

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

17.7 GB16.1 GB file

32K 23.2 GB · 128K 40.8 GB

Qwen3 8B

17.0 GB16.4 GB file

32K 21.5 GB · 128K —

How to run each

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/bartowski/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct →

Qwen3 8B

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/Qwen/Qwen3-8B-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Qwen3 8B →

Specifications

Specifications of Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and Qwen3 8B
Spec	Llama 3.1 8B Instruct	Qwen3 8B
Publisher	Meta	Alibaba
Parameters	8.0B	8.2B
Architecture	—	Qwen3ForCausalLM
Context	128K tokens	40K tokens
Modalities	Chat, Function-calling	Chat, Function-calling
License	Llama 3.1 Community	Apache 2.0
Released	Jul 2024	Apr 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen3 8B?

Qwen3 8B leads llmrun Score 93.8 to 62.5; both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M. Choose Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for longer context window; choose Qwen3 8B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at science.

Which needs less VRAM, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen3 8B?

At Q4_K_M, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct requires 5.3 GB while Qwen3 8B needs 5.5 GB, making Llama 3.1 8B 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 119 tok/s for Qwen3 8B (Q4_K_M), so Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is faster. Estimates, ±20%.

Can I run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen3 8B on a 16 GB GPU?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct fits at Q4_K_M; Qwen3 8B fits at Q4_K_M.

Which has a longer context window, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Qwen3 8B?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct supports 131,072 tokens and Qwen3 8B supports 40,960 tokens.