Which needs less VRAM, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or Llama Guard 3 1B?

At BF16, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct needs 883.5 GB and Llama Guard 3 1B needs 3.3 GB, so Llama Guard 3 1B is the lighter option to run locally.

What is the difference between Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct and Llama Guard 3 1B?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct is a 401.6B model from Meta (Llama family), while Llama Guard 3 1B is a 1.5B model from Meta (Llama family). Compare their VRAM requirements above to see which fits your GPU or Mac.

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct vs Llama Guard 3 1B

Side-by-side comparison of VRAM requirements, quantization, context length, and hardware compatibility.

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Meta · 401.6B

Vision

Llama Guard 3 1B

Meta · 1.5B

Chat

Specifications

	Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct	Llama Guard 3 1B
Parameters	401.6B	1.5B
Context	—	—
Architecture	—	—
License	Other	llama3.2
Downloads	33.2K	44.9K
Released	—	Sep 2024

VRAM by Quantization: Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct vs Llama Guard 3 1B

Quantization	Bits	Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct VRAM	Llama Guard 3 1B VRAM
BF16	16.00	883.5 GB	3.3 GB

Verdict

Llama Guard 3 1B needs less VRAM at BF16 (3.3 GB vs 883.5 GB), so it fits on smaller GPUs. Llama Guard 3 1B is the more widely downloaded of the two.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which needs less VRAM, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or Llama Guard 3 1B?: At BF16, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct needs 883.5 GB and Llama Guard 3 1B needs 3.3 GB, so Llama Guard 3 1B is the lighter option to run locally.
What is the difference between Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct and Llama Guard 3 1B?: Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct is a 401.6B model from Meta (Llama family), while Llama Guard 3 1B is a 1.5B model from Meta (Llama family). Compare their VRAM requirements above to see which fits your GPU or Mac.