Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B leads llmrun Score 102.1 to 74.3; neither fits 24 GB.
Run Mistral Medium 3.5 128B in the cloud →
Model B · Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B127.7B · 256K context · Other · Mar 2026
Choose Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct if you want…
Fits a 48 GB GPU
Q4_K_M · 51.3 GB; Mistral Medium 3.5 128B needs 41.3 GB at its smallest quant
Lighter on memory
46.6 vs 77.7 GB at Q4_K_M
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 128B if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
102.1 vs 74.3
Also does function-calling
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct doesn't list it
Newer release
Mar 2026 vs Apr 2024
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
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 28 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 41.3 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 28 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 41.3 GB
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 28 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 41.3 GB
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 28 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 41.3 GB
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
IQ2_XS · ~50 tok/s
28 GB · up to 16Kfits
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 41.3 GB
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~11 tok/stight
51.3 GB · up to 4K
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
IQ2_S · ~12 tok/s
46.1 GB · up to 16Kmore headroom
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
IQ2_XS · ~4 tok/s
28 GB · up to 16Kfits
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 41.3 GB
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~8 tok/s
51.3 GB · up to 32Kmore headroom
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
IQ3_S · ~7 tok/s
60.5 GB · up to 16K
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~8 tok/s
51.3 GB · up to 32Kfaster
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s
82.8 GB · up to 128K
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Coding
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
no data
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Science
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
no data
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Reasoning
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
no data
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct · #95 of 106 open models · #41 of 51 that fit ≤64 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B · #53 of 106 open models · #20 of 62 that fit ≤96 GB
Benchmarks
1 shared board: Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct leads 0, Mistral Medium 3.5 128B leads 1 · Benchmarks imported Nov 2026
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
54.2%#58/70 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2024
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
75.5%#30/70 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Apr 2026
15 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
1276.6#120/188 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
1426.4#28/188 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Only Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct (5)
- GPQA Diamond40.6%
- AIME 2024/20254.3%
- MMLU-Pro56.2%
- MATH Level 522.6%
- MMLU79.3%
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 128B (9)
- LMArena WebDev1264.0
- SciCode40.2%
- WeirdML43.7%
- FrontierCode8.0%
- CritPt0.0%
- LMCA26.1%
- ALE-Bench764.0
- Surface Evolver Bench26.9%
- ProofBench9.0%
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
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
33.0 GB26.4 GB file
32K 43.1 GB · 128K 75.5 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
55.3 GB46.6 GB file
32K 66.4 GB · 128K 102 GB
Q3_K_S
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
34.0 GB30.9 GB file
32K 44.1 GB · 128K 76.4 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
56.9 GB54.4 GB file
32K 68.0 GB · 128K 103 GB
Q3_K_M
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
37.8 GB34.3 GB file
32K 48.0 GB · 128K 80.3 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
63.3 GB60.6 GB file
32K 74.4 GB · 128K 110 GB
Q4_0
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
38.8 GB40.0 GB file
32K 48.9 GB · 128K 81.3 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
64.9 GB71.0 GB file
32K 76.0 GB · 128K 111 GB
Q4_K_M
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
46.6 GB42.5 GB file
32K 56.7 GB · 128K 89.1 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
77.7 GB74.9 GB file
32K 88.7 GB · 128K 124 GB
Q5_K_M
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
55.3 GB50.0 GB file
32K 65.4 GB · 128K 97.8 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
92.0 GB88.3 GB file
32K 103 GB · 128K 139 GB
Q6_K
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
64.0 GB57.9 GB file
32K 74.2 GB · 128K 107 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
106 GB102.6 GB file
32K 117 GB · 128K 153 GB
Q8_0
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
77.6 GB75.0 GB file
32K 87.7 GB · 128K 120 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
129 GB132.9 GB file
32K 140 GB · 128K 175 GB
20 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
36.2 GB34.9 GB file
32K 47.2 GB · 128K 82.7 GB
IQ2_XS
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
23.3 GB21.1 GB file
32K 33.4 GB · 128K 65.8 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
39.4 GB43.4 GB file
32K 50.4 GB · 128K 85.9 GB
IQ2_S
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
41.0 GB46.1 GB file
32K 52.0 GB · 128K 87.5 GB
IQ2_M
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
44.1 GB44.1 GB file
32K 55.2 GB · 128K 90.7 GB
IQ3_XXS
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
50.5 GB49.3 GB file
32K 61.6 GB · 128K 97.0 GB
Q2_K_S
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
52.1 GB43.0 GB file
32K 63.2 GB · 128K 98.6 GB
IQ3_XS
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
53.7 GB54.9 GB file
32K 64.8 GB · 128K 100 GB
IQ3_S
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
55.3 GB54.5 GB file
32K 66.4 GB · 128K 102 GB
IQ3_M
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
58.5 GB59.5 GB file
32K 69.6 GB · 128K 105 GB
Q3_K_L
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
39.8 GB37.1 GB file
32K 49.9 GB · 128K 82.3 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
66.5 GB67.0 GB file
32K 77.6 GB · 128K 113 GB
IQ4_XS
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
69.7 GB67.1 GB file
32K 80.8 GB · 128K 116 GB
IQ4_NL
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
72.9 GB70.9 GB file
32K 83.9 GB · 128K 119 GB
Q4_1
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
43.7 GB44.3 GB file
32K 53.8 GB · 128K 86.2 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
72.9 GB78.5 GB file
32K 83.9 GB · 128K 119 GB
Q4_K_S
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
43.7 GB40.3 GB file
32K 53.8 GB · 128K 86.2 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
72.9 GB71.2 GB file
32K 83.9 GB · 128K 119 GB
Q4_K_L
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
79.3 GB79.6 GB file
32K 90.3 GB · 128K 126 GB
Q5_0
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
48.5 GB48.7 GB file
32K 58.6 GB · 128K 91.0 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
not listed
Q5_1
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
53.4 GB53.0 GB file
32K 63.5 GB · 128K 95.9 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
not listed
Q5_K_S
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
53.4 GB48.7 GB file
32K 63.5 GB · 128K 95.9 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
88.8 GB86.2 GB file
32K 99.9 GB · 128K 135 GB
Q5_K_L
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
not listed
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
93.6 GB92.1 GB file
32K 105 GB · 128K 140 GB
BF16
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
155 GB~141.1 GB file
32K 165 GB · 128K 198 GB
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B
256 GB250.1 GB file
32K 268 GB · 128K 303 GB
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/QuantFactory/Meta-Llama-3-70B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_MMistral Medium 3.5 128B
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Mistral-Medium-3.5-128B-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct | Mistral Medium 3.5 128B |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Meta | Mistral AI |
| Parameters | 70.6B | 127.7B |
| Architecture | — | Mistral3ForConditionalGeneration |
| Context | — | 256K tokens |
| Modalities | Chat | Chat, Function-calling |
| License | Llama 3 Community | Other |
| Released | Apr 2024 | Mar 2026 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 128B?
Mistral Medium 3.5 128B leads llmrun Score 102.1 to 74.3; neither fits 24 GB. Choose Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct for fits a 48 GB GPU and lighter on memory; choose Mistral Medium 3.5 128B for higher llmrun Score and also does function-calling.
Which needs less VRAM, Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 128B?
At Q4_K_M, Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct requires 46.6 GB while Mistral Medium 3.5 128B needs 77.7 GB, making Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct the easier model to run on your local setup.
Can I run Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 128B on a 16 GB GPU?
Meta Llama 3 70B Instruct does not fit (smallest quant needs 28 GB); Mistral Medium 3.5 128B does not fit (smallest quant needs 41.3 GB).