Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct vs Qwen3.8 27B

Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 122.1 to 87.1; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct needs 129.2 GB even at its smallest quant.

Model A · Meta

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

87.1llmrun Score

401.6B · 17B active · Other · Apr 2025

Vision

Model B · Alibaba

Qwen3.8 27B

122.1llmrun Score

27.8B · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Aug 2026

VisionFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen3.8 27B if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
122.1 vs 87.1
Stronger at reasoning
124.0 vs 85.2
Stronger at coding
119.7 vs 81.1
Ahead on the benchmarks
6 of 6 shared boards
Fits a 12 GB GPU
IQ3_XXS · 12 GB; Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct needs 129.2 GB at its smallest quant
Fits a Mac 32 GB
Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB; Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct needs 129.2 GB at its smallest quant

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct: no clear edge over Qwen3.8 27B in the data we have.

On your hardware

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

MemoryLlama 4 Maverick 17B 128E InstructQwen3.8 27B

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 8.8 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

IQ3_XXS · ~20 tok/s

12 GB · up to 16Kfits

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q3_K_L · ~19 tok/s

15.4 GB · up to 16Kfits

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~38 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 64Kfits

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~67 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 128Kfits

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 129.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits

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 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct Qwen3.8 27B

Overall

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

87.184–90

Qwen3.8 27B

122.1120–124

Coding

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

81.174–89

Qwen3.8 27B

119.7114–125

Agents

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

no data

Qwen3.8 27B

122.8117–129

Math

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

no data

Qwen3.8 27B

117.5111–124

Science

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

95.989–103

Qwen3.8 27B

112.093–131

Reasoning

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

85.278–93

Qwen3.8 27B

124.0121–127

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct · #72 of 100 open models · #69 of 96 that fit ≤512 GB

Qwen3.8 27B · #11 of 100 open models · #1 of 35 that fit 24 GB

Benchmarks

6 shared boards: Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct leads 0, Qwen3.8 27B leads 6 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

BoardLlama 4 Maverick 17B 128E InstructQwen3.8 27B

ARC-AGI-2

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

0.0%#17/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

42.4%#6/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

SciCode

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

33.1%#49/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

46.6%#19/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

ARC-AGI

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

4.4%#18/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

87.5%#6/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

CritPt

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

0.0%#55/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

5.4%#15/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

DTBench

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

61.9%#41/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

88.0%#9/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

LMCA

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

15.9%#39/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

41.4%#7/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

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

LMArena Text

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

1327.0#89/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

1437.8#22/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Only Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct (11)

Only Qwen3.8 27B (14)

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 4 Maverick 17B 128E InstructQwen3.8 27B

Q2_K

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

188 GB145.6 GB file

32K 204 GB · 128K 257 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.6 GB10.8 GB file

32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB

Q3_K_S

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

193 GB172.7 GB file

32K 210 GB · 128K 262 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.9 GB12.7 GB file

32K 14.2 GB · 128K 19.6 GB

Q3_K_M

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

215 GB191.1 GB file

32K 232 GB · 128K 284 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

14.3 GB13.4 GB file

32K 15.6 GB · 128K 21.0 GB

Q4_0

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

221 GB226.8 GB file

32K 237 GB · 128K 290 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

14.6 GB~13.9 GB file

32K 16.0 GB · 128K 21.4 GB

Q4_K_M

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

265 GB242.8 GB file

32K 282 GB · 128K 334 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

17.4 GB16.5 GB file

32K 18.8 GB · 128K 24.1 GB

Q5_K_M

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

315 GB284.5 GB file

32K 331 GB · 128K 384 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

20.5 GB19.8 GB file

32K 21.9 GB · 128K 27.3 GB

Q6_K

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

364 GB328.8 GB file

32K 381 GB · 128K 434 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

23.7 GB22.0 GB file

32K 25.0 GB · 128K 30.4 GB

Q8_0

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

442 GB425.8 GB file

32K 458 GB · 128K 511 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

28.5 GB29.0 GB file

32K 29.9 GB · 128K 35.2 GB

17 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

121 GB135.2 GB file

32K 138 GB · 128K 191 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

8.4 GB7.3 GB file

32K 9.7 GB · 128K 15.1 GB

IQ2_XS

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

9.1 GB9.1 GB file

32K 10.4 GB · 128K 15.8 GB

IQ2_S

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

9.4 GB8.4 GB file

32K 10.8 GB · 128K 16.1 GB

IQ2_M

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

149 GB141.2 GB file

32K 166 GB · 128K 218 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

10.1 GB10.5 GB file

32K 11.5 GB · 128K 16.8 GB

IQ3_XXS

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

171 GB169.3 GB file

32K 188 GB · 128K 240 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

11.5 GB10.9 GB file

32K 12.9 GB · 128K 18.2 GB

IQ3_XS

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

12.2 GB10.4 GB file

32K 13.6 GB · 128K 18.9 GB

IQ3_S

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

12.6 GB12.0 GB file

32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB

IQ3_M

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

13.3 GB14.9 GB file

32K 14.6 GB · 128K 20.0 GB

Q3_K_L

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

15.0 GB14.1 GB file

32K 16.3 GB · 128K 21.7 GB

IQ4_XS

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

237 GB214.3 GB file

32K 254 GB · 128K 307 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

15.7 GB14.3 GB file

32K 17.0 GB · 128K 22.4 GB

IQ4_NL

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

248 GB225.8 GB file

32K 265 GB · 128K 318 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB17.4 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_1

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

248 GB250.7 GB file

32K 265 GB · 128K 318 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB17.5 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_K_S

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

248 GB227.8 GB file

32K 265 GB · 128K 318 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB15.4 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_K_L

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

17.8 GB18.8 GB file

32K 19.1 GB · 128K 24.5 GB

Q5_K_S

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

304 GB275.7 GB file

32K 320 GB · 128K 373 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

19.9 GB18.7 GB file

32K 21.2 GB · 128K 26.6 GB

Q5_K_L

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

20.9 GB21.5 GB file

32K 22.2 GB · 128K 27.6 GB

BF16

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

883 GB801.5 GB file

32K 900 GB · 128K 953 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

56.3 GB54.7 GB file

32K 57.7 GB · 128K 63.0 GB

How to run each

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct →

Qwen3.8 27B

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Qwen3.8 27B →

Specifications

Specifications of Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct and Qwen3.8 27B
Spec	Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct	Qwen3.8 27B
Publisher	Meta	Alibaba
Parameters	401.6B	27.8B
Active parameters	17B per token	—
Architecture	—	Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration
Context	—	256K tokens
Modalities	Vision	Vision, Function-calling
License	Other	Apache 2.0
Released	Apr 2025	Aug 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 122.1 to 87.1; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct needs 129.2 GB even at its smallest quant. Choose Qwen3.8 27B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at reasoning.

Which needs less VRAM, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or Qwen3.8 27B?

At Q4_K_M, Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct requires 265.1 GB while Qwen3.8 27B needs 17.4 GB, making Qwen3.8 27B the easier model to run on your local setup.

Can I run Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct or Qwen3.8 27B on a 16 GB GPU?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B 128E Instruct does not fit (smallest quant needs 129.2 GB); Qwen3.8 27B fits at Q3_K_L.