MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.8 27B

Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 121.5 to 111.0; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); MiniMax M3 needs 119.2 GB even at its smallest quant.

Model A · MiniMax

MiniMax M3

111.0llmrun Score

427.0B · 19.8B active · 1M context · Other · Jun 2026

VisionFunctions

Model B · Alibaba

Qwen3.8 27B

121.5llmrun Score

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

VisionFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose MiniMax M3 if you want…

Longer context window
1M vs 256K tokens

Choose Qwen3.8 27B if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
121.5 vs 111.0
Stronger at reasoning
124.1 vs 107.2
Stronger at math
117.5 vs 106.1
Ahead on the benchmarks
7 of 10 shared boards
Fits a 12 GB GPU
IQ3_XXS · 12 GB; MiniMax M3 needs 119.2 GB at its smallest quant
Fits a Mac 32 GB
Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB; MiniMax M3 needs 119.2 GB at its smallest quant

On your hardware

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

MemoryMiniMax M3Qwen3.8 27B

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 8.8 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

IQ3_XXS · ~20 tok/s

12 GB · up to 16Kfits

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q3_K_L · ~19 tok/s

15.4 GB · up to 16Kfits

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~38 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 64Kfits

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~67 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 128Kfits

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

MiniMax M3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 119.2 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

MiniMax M3

IQ2_XXS · ~38 tok/s

119.2 GB · up to 64K

Qwen3.8 27B

Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s

17.9 GB · up to 256Kmore headroom

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

MiniMax M3 Qwen3.8 27B

Overall

MiniMax M3

111.0108–114

Qwen3.8 27B

121.5119–124

Coding

MiniMax M3

113.0107–119

Qwen3.8 27B

112.1105–119

Agents

MiniMax M3

113.0102–124

Qwen3.8 27B

no data

Math

MiniMax M3

106.1100–112

Qwen3.8 27B

117.5111–125

Science

MiniMax M3

118.0107–129

Qwen3.8 27B

112.093–131

Reasoning

MiniMax M3

107.2101–113

Qwen3.8 27B

124.1121–127

MiniMax M3 · #22 of 92 open models · #19 of 88 that fit ≤512 GB

Qwen3.8 27B · #10 of 92 open models · #1 of 34 that fit 24 GB

Benchmarks

10 shared boards: MiniMax M3 leads 2, Qwen3.8 27B leads 7 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

BoardMiniMax M3Qwen3.8 27B

LMArena Text

MiniMax M3

1440.5#20/186 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

1438.1#22/186 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

LiveBench Coding

MiniMax M3

68.2#19/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

75.7#9/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

LiveBench Reasoning

MiniMax M3

74.5#17/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

80.0#11/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

LMArena WebDev

MiniMax M3

1481.7#16/50 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

1592.8#10/50 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

LiveBench Math

MiniMax M3

77.0#19/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

86.2#11/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

SciCode

MiniMax M3

47.1%#16/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

46.6%#19/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

CritPt

MiniMax M3

3.7%#20/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

5.4%#15/65 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

DTBench

MiniMax M3

78.9%#24/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

88.0%#9/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

LMCA

MiniMax M3

33.7%#17/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

41.4%#7/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

ProofBench

MiniMax M3

18.0%#13/26 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

16.0%#16/26 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

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

APEX-Agents

MiniMax M3

37.7%#10/16 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

47.5%#5/16 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

Surface Evolver Bench

MiniMax M3

55.0%#3/13 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jun 2026

Qwen3.8 27B

45.0%#7/13 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

Only MiniMax M3 (9)

Only Qwen3.8 27B (2)

ARC-AGI-242.4%
ARC-AGI87.5%

VRAM by quantization

Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.

QuantMiniMax M3Qwen3.8 27B

Q2_K

MiniMax M3

182 GB151.9 GB file

32K 185 GB · 128K 194 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.6 GB10.8 GB file

32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB

Q3_K_S

MiniMax M3

187 GB187.3 GB file

32K 190 GB · 128K 199 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.9 GB12.7 GB file

32K 14.2 GB · 128K 19.6 GB

Q3_K_M

MiniMax M3

209 GB195.5 GB file

32K 212 GB · 128K 221 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

14.3 GB13.4 GB file

32K 15.6 GB · 128K 21.0 GB

Q4_0

MiniMax M3

214 GB243.6 GB file

32K 217 GB · 128K 226 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

14.6 GB~13.9 GB file

32K 16.0 GB · 128K 21.4 GB

Q4_K_M

MiniMax M3

257 GB264.9 GB file

32K 260 GB · 128K 269 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

17.4 GB16.5 GB file

32K 18.8 GB · 128K 24.1 GB

Q5_K_M

MiniMax M3

305 GB318.7 GB file

32K 308 GB · 128K 317 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

20.5 GB19.8 GB file

32K 21.9 GB · 128K 27.3 GB

Q6_K

MiniMax M3

353 GB355.3 GB file

32K 356 GB · 128K 365 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

23.7 GB22.0 GB file

32K 25.0 GB · 128K 30.4 GB

Q8_0

MiniMax M3

428 GB453.6 GB file

32K 430 GB · 128K 439 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

28.5 GB29.0 GB file

32K 29.9 GB · 128K 35.2 GB

17 more quants

IQ2_XXS

MiniMax M3

118 GB134.9 GB file

32K 121 GB · 128K 130 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

8.4 GB7.3 GB file

32K 9.7 GB · 128K 15.1 GB

IQ2_XS

MiniMax M3

129 GB129.5 GB file

32K 131 GB · 128K 140 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

9.1 GB9.1 GB file

32K 10.4 GB · 128K 15.8 GB

IQ2_S

MiniMax M3

134 GB132.1 GB file

32K 137 GB · 128K 146 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

9.4 GB8.4 GB file

32K 10.8 GB · 128K 16.1 GB

IQ2_M

MiniMax M3

145 GB135.1 GB file

32K 147 GB · 128K 157 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

10.1 GB10.5 GB file

32K 11.5 GB · 128K 16.8 GB

IQ3_XXS

MiniMax M3

166 GB160.3 GB file

32K 169 GB · 128K 178 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

11.5 GB10.9 GB file

32K 12.9 GB · 128K 18.2 GB

IQ3_XS

MiniMax M3

177 GB196.4 GB file

32K 179 GB · 128K 189 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.2 GB10.4 GB file

32K 13.6 GB · 128K 18.9 GB

IQ3_S

MiniMax M3

182 GB175.6 GB file

32K 185 GB · 128K 194 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

12.6 GB12.0 GB file

32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB

IQ3_M

MiniMax M3

193 GB205.5 GB file

32K 195 GB · 128K 205 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

13.3 GB14.9 GB file

32K 14.6 GB · 128K 20.0 GB

Q3_K_L

MiniMax M3

219 GB205.0 GB file

32K 222 GB · 128K 231 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

15.0 GB14.1 GB file

32K 16.3 GB · 128K 21.7 GB

IQ4_XS

MiniMax M3

230 GB208.5 GB file

32K 233 GB · 128K 242 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

15.7 GB14.3 GB file

32K 17.0 GB · 128K 22.4 GB

IQ4_NL

MiniMax M3

241 GB212.7 GB file

32K 244 GB · 128K 253 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB17.4 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_1

MiniMax M3

241 GB268.9 GB file

32K 244 GB · 128K 253 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB17.5 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_K_S

MiniMax M3

241 GB248.6 GB file

32K 244 GB · 128K 253 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

16.4 GB15.4 GB file

32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB

Q4_K_L

MiniMax M3

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

17.8 GB18.8 GB file

32K 19.1 GB · 128K 24.5 GB

Q5_K_S

MiniMax M3

294 GB299.7 GB file

32K 297 GB · 128K 306 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

19.9 GB18.7 GB file

32K 21.2 GB · 128K 26.6 GB

Q5_K_L

MiniMax M3

not listed

Qwen3.8 27B

20.9 GB21.5 GB file

32K 22.2 GB · 128K 27.6 GB

BF16

MiniMax M3

855 GB852.9 GB file

32K 857 GB · 128K 866 GB

Qwen3.8 27B

56.3 GB54.7 GB file

32K 57.7 GB · 128K 63.0 GB

How to run each

MiniMax M3

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/MiniMax-M3-GGUF:Q4_K_M

All ways to run MiniMax M3 →

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 MiniMax M3 and Qwen3.8 27B
Spec	MiniMax M3	Qwen3.8 27B
Publisher	MiniMax	Alibaba
Parameters	427.0B	27.8B
Active parameters	20B per token	—
Architecture	MiniMaxM3SparseForConditionalGeneration	Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration
Context	1M tokens	256K tokens
Modalities	Vision, Function-calling	Vision, Function-calling
License	Other	Apache 2.0
Released	Jun 2026	Aug 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 121.5 to 111.0; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); MiniMax M3 needs 119.2 GB even at its smallest quant. Choose MiniMax M3 for longer context window; choose Qwen3.8 27B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at reasoning.

Which needs less VRAM, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.8 27B?

At Q4_K_M, MiniMax M3 requires 256.7 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 MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.8 27B on a 16 GB GPU?

MiniMax M3 does not fit (smallest quant needs 119.2 GB); Qwen3.8 27B fits at Q3_K_L.

Which has a longer context window, MiniMax M3 or Qwen3.8 27B?

MiniMax M3 supports 1,048,576 tokens and Qwen3.8 27B supports 262,144 tokens.