Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct vs Qwen3.8 27B

Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 122.1 to 81.8; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct needs 38.2 GB even at its smallest quant.

Model A · Meta

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

81.8llmrun Score

108.6B · 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 81.8
Stronger at reasoning
124.0 vs 79.7
Stronger at science
112.0 vs 83.0
Ahead on the benchmarks
6 of 6 shared boards
Fits a 12 GB GPU
IQ3_XXS · 12 GB; Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct needs 38.2 GB at its smallest quant
Fits a Mac 32 GB
Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB; Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct needs 38.2 GB at its smallest quant

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E 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 Scout 17B 16E InstructQwen3.8 27B

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 38.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 8.8 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 38.2 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 38.2 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 38.2 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 38.2 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

IQ2_M · ~65 tok/s

45.7 GB · up to 16K

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kmore headroom

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 38.2 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

IQ3_M · ~32 tok/s

59.1 GB · up to 16K

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kmore headroom

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Q4_K_M · ~26 tok/s

77 GB · up to 32Kfaster

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256K

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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct Qwen3.8 27B

Overall

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

81.878–86

Qwen3.8 27B

122.1120–124

Coding

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

no data

Qwen3.8 27B

119.7114–125

Agents

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

no data

Qwen3.8 27B

122.8117–129

Math

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

no data

Qwen3.8 27B

117.5111–124

Science

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

83.075–91

Qwen3.8 27B

112.093–131

Reasoning

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

79.770–89

Qwen3.8 27B

124.0121–127

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct · #79 of 100 open models · #40 of 60 that fit ≤96 GB

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

Benchmarks

6 shared boards: Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct leads 0, Qwen3.8 27B leads 6 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

BoardLlama 4 Scout 17B 16E InstructQwen3.8 27B

ARC-AGI-2

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

0.0%#18/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

42.4%#6/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

SciCode

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

17.0%#63/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

46.6%#19/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

ARC-AGI

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

0.5%#19/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

87.5%#6/19 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

CritPt

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

0.0%#56/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

5.4%#15/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

DTBench

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

57.9%#53/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

88.0%#9/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

LMCA

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

12.0%#46/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2025

Qwen3.8 27B

41.4%#7/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

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

LMArena Text

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

1321.5#94/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

1437.8#22/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Only Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct (6)

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 Scout 17B 16E InstructQwen3.8 27B

Q2_K

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

50.8 GB39.6 GB file

32K 62.2 GB · 128K 98.7 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.6 GB10.8 GB file

32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB

Q3_K_S

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

52.3 GB46.7 GB file

32K 63.7 GB · 128K 100 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.9 GB12.7 GB file

32K 14.2 GB · 128K 19.6 GB

Q3_K_M

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

58.3 GB51.8 GB file

32K 69.7 GB · 128K 106 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

14.3 GB13.4 GB file

32K 15.6 GB · 128K 21.0 GB

Q4_0

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

59.8 GB61.2 GB file

32K 71.2 GB · 128K 108 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

14.6 GB~13.9 GB file

32K 16.0 GB · 128K 21.4 GB

Q4_K_M

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

71.7 GB65.4 GB file

32K 83.1 GB · 128K 120 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

17.4 GB16.5 GB file

32K 18.8 GB · 128K 24.1 GB

Q5_K_M

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

85.2 GB76.5 GB file

32K 96.6 GB · 128K 133 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

20.5 GB19.8 GB file

32K 21.9 GB · 128K 27.3 GB

Q6_K

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

98.6 GB88.4 GB file

32K 110 GB · 128K 147 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

23.7 GB22.0 GB file

32K 25.0 GB · 128K 30.4 GB

Q8_0

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

120 GB114.5 GB file

32K 131 GB · 128K 167 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

28.5 GB29.0 GB file

32K 29.9 GB · 128K 35.2 GB

18 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

32.9 GB37.4 GB file

32K 44.3 GB · 128K 80.8 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

8.4 GB7.3 GB file

32K 9.7 GB · 128K 15.1 GB

IQ2_XS

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

35.9 GB31.8 GB file

32K 47.3 GB · 128K 83.8 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

9.1 GB9.1 GB file

32K 10.4 GB · 128K 15.8 GB

IQ2_S

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

37.4 GB32.3 GB file

32K 48.8 GB · 128K 85.3 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

9.4 GB8.4 GB file

32K 10.8 GB · 128K 16.1 GB

IQ2_M

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

40.3 GB39.1 GB file

32K 51.8 GB · 128K 88.3 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

10.1 GB10.5 GB file

32K 11.5 GB · 128K 16.8 GB

IQ3_XXS

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

46.3 GB45.7 GB file

32K 57.7 GB · 128K 94.3 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

11.5 GB10.9 GB file

32K 12.9 GB · 128K 18.2 GB

Q2_K_S

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

47.8 GB37.0 GB file

32K 59.2 GB · 128K 95.8 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

not listed

IQ3_XS

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

49.3 GB44.3 GB file

32K 60.7 GB · 128K 97.3 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.2 GB10.4 GB file

32K 13.6 GB · 128K 18.9 GB

IQ3_S

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

50.8 GB46.8 GB file

32K 62.2 GB · 128K 98.7 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.6 GB12.0 GB file

32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB

IQ3_M

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

53.8 GB47.5 GB file

32K 65.2 GB · 128K 102 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

13.3 GB14.9 GB file

32K 14.6 GB · 128K 20.0 GB

Q3_K_L

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

61.3 GB57.8 GB file

32K 72.7 GB · 128K 109 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

15.0 GB14.1 GB file

32K 16.3 GB · 128K 21.7 GB

IQ4_XS

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

64.2 GB57.7 GB file

32K 75.7 GB · 128K 112 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

15.7 GB14.3 GB file

32K 17.0 GB · 128K 22.4 GB

IQ4_NL

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

67.2 GB60.9 GB file

32K 78.6 GB · 128K 115 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB17.4 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_1

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

67.2 GB67.6 GB file

32K 78.6 GB · 128K 115 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB17.5 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_K_S

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

67.2 GB61.5 GB file

32K 78.6 GB · 128K 115 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB15.4 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_K_L

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

82.2 GB74.3 GB file

32K 93.6 GB · 128K 130 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

19.9 GB18.7 GB file

32K 21.2 GB · 128K 26.6 GB

Q5_K_L

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

20.9 GB21.5 GB file

32K 22.2 GB · 128K 27.6 GB

BF16

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

239 GB215.6 GB file

32K 250 GB · 128K 287 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

56.3 GB54.7 GB file

32K 57.7 GB · 128K 63.0 GB

How to run each

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Llama-4-Scout-17B-16E-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct and Qwen3.8 27B
Spec	Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct	Qwen3.8 27B
Publisher	Meta	Alibaba
Parameters	108.6B	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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct or Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 122.1 to 81.8; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct needs 38.2 GB even at its smallest quant. Choose Qwen3.8 27B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at reasoning.

Which needs less VRAM, Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct or Qwen3.8 27B?

At Q4_K_M, Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct requires 71.7 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 Scout 17B 16E Instruct or Qwen3.8 27B on a 16 GB GPU?

Llama 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct does not fit (smallest quant needs 38.2 GB); Qwen3.8 27B fits at Q3_K_L.