llmrun

Qwen3.5 397B A17B vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small leads llmrun Score 119.6 to 113.0; neither fits 24 GB.

Model A · Alibaba

Qwen3.5 397B A17B
113.0llmrun Score

403.4B · 24.4B active · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Feb 2026

VisionFunctions

Model B · Thinking Machines

Inkling Small
119.6llmrun Score

266.0B · 1.7B active · Apache 2.0 · Jul 2026

VisionChatFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose Inkling Small if you want…

  • Higher llmrun Score

    119.6 vs 113.0

  • Ahead on the benchmarks

    3 of 4 shared boards

  • Fits a Mac 128 GB

    IQ3_S · 116.2 GB; Qwen3.5 397B A17B needs 111.5 GB at its smallest quant

  • Lighter on memory

    160.2 vs 242.5 GB at Q4_K_M

  • Also does chat

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B doesn't list it

  • Newer release

    Jul 2026 vs Feb 2026

Qwen3.5 397B A17B: no clear edge over Inkling Small 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%.

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 111.5 GB

Inkling Small

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 76.3 GB

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

IQ2_XS · ~32 tok/s

121.6 GB · up to 128K

Inkling Small

IQ3_S · ~97 tok/s

116.2 GB · up to 32Kbetter quant

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

Overall

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

113.0109–117

Inkling Small

119.6117–122

Math

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

112.4107–118

Inkling Small

117.1113–121

Science

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

no data

Inkling Small

118.3108–129

Reasoning

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

116.8109–125

Inkling Small

122.6119–126

Qwen3.5 397B A17B · #20 of 100 open models · #9 of 84 that fit ≤256 GB

Inkling Small · #13 of 100 open models · #5 of 78 that fit ≤192 GB

Benchmarks

4 shared boards: Qwen3.5 397B A17B leads 1, Inkling Small leads 3 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

GPQA Diamond

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

86.4%#18/98 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026

Inkling Small

88.5%#13/98 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

AIME 2024/2025

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

88.9%#16/86 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026

Inkling Small

90.0%#14/86 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

FrontierMath

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

31.2%#16/17 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026

Inkling Small

46.3%#11/17 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

Mystery Game Puzzles

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

18.0%#10/18 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Feb 2026

Inkling Small

6.0%#17/18 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

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

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

1441.6#17/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Inkling Small

1404.0#46/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

LMArena WebDev

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

1400.5#28/52 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Inkling Small

1409.1#27/52 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B (4)

Only Inkling Small (7)

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

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

172 GB146.3 GB file

32K 172 GB · 128K 174 GB

Inkling Small

114 GB~113.0 GB file

32K 119 GB · 128K 136 GB

Q3_K_S

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

177 GB164.3 GB file

32K 177 GB · 128K 179 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

Q3_K_M

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

197 GB177.4 GB file

32K 197 GB · 128K 199 GB

Inkling Small

130 GB119.4 GB file

32K 136 GB · 128K 153 GB

Q4_0

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

202 GB~201.7 GB file

32K 203 GB · 128K 204 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

Q4_K_M

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

242 GB244.1 GB file

32K 243 GB · 128K 244 GB

Inkling Small

160 GB162.5 GB file

32K 166 GB · 128K 182 GB

Q5_K_M

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

288 GB293.7 GB file

32K 288 GB · 128K 290 GB

Inkling Small

190 GB196.1 GB file

32K 195 GB · 128K 212 GB

Q6_K

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

333 GB326.6 GB file

32K 334 GB · 128K 335 GB

Inkling Small

220 GB218.9 GB file

32K 225 GB · 128K 242 GB

Q8_0

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

404 GB421.5 GB file

32K 404 GB · 128K 406 GB

Inkling Small

267 GB280.3 GB file

32K 272 GB · 128K 289 GB

17 more quants

IQ2_XXS

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

111 GB114.9 GB file

32K 112 GB · 128K 113 GB

Inkling Small

73.8 GB82.3 GB file

32K 79.1 GB · 128K 96.0 GB

IQ2_XS

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

121 GB125.4 GB file

32K 122 GB · 128K 123 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

IQ2_S

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

126 GB127.3 GB file

32K 127 GB · 128K 128 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

IQ2_M

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

137 GB123.1 GB file

32K 137 GB · 128K 138 GB

Inkling Small

90.4 GB82.4 GB file

32K 95.7 GB · 128K 113 GB

IQ3_XXS

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

157 GB140.3 GB file

32K 157 GB · 128K 159 GB

Inkling Small

104 GB97.9 GB file

32K 109 GB · 128K 126 GB

IQ3_XS

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

167 GB188.2 GB file

32K 167 GB · 128K 169 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

IQ3_S

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

172 GB146.4 GB file

32K 172 GB · 128K 174 GB

Inkling Small

114 GB107.5 GB file

32K 119 GB · 128K 136 GB

IQ3_M

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

182 GB196.0 GB file

32K 182 GB · 128K 184 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

Q3_K_L

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

207 GB195.9 GB file

32K 208 GB · 128K 209 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

IQ4_XS

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

217 GB189.7 GB file

32K 218 GB · 128K 219 GB

Inkling Small

144 GB127.4 GB file

32K 149 GB · 128K 166 GB

IQ4_NL

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

227 GB193.8 GB file

32K 228 GB · 128K 229 GB

Inkling Small

150 GB130.1 GB file

32K 156 GB · 128K 172 GB

Q4_1

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

227 GB256.1 GB file

32K 228 GB · 128K 229 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

Q4_K_S

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

227 GB228.0 GB file

32K 228 GB · 128K 229 GB

Inkling Small

150 GB152.3 GB file

32K 156 GB · 128K 172 GB

Q4_K_L

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

248 GB249.0 GB file

32K 248 GB · 128K 249 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

Q5_K_S

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

278 GB276.6 GB file

32K 278 GB · 128K 280 GB

Inkling Small

184 GB184.2 GB file

32K 189 GB · 128K 206 GB

Q5_K_L

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

293 GB290.6 GB file

32K 293 GB · 128K 295 GB

Inkling Small

not listed

BF16

Qwen3.5 397B A17B

807 GB793.0 GB file

32K 808 GB · 128K 809 GB

Inkling Small

533 GB527.4 GB file

32K 538 GB · 128K 555 GB

How to run each

Specifications

Specifications of Qwen3.5 397B A17B and Inkling Small
SpecQwen3.5 397B A17BInkling Small
PublisherAlibabaThinking Machines
Parameters403.4B266.0B
Active parameters24B per token1.7B per token
ArchitectureQwen3_5MoeForConditionalGenerationInklingForConditionalGeneration
Context256K tokens—
ModalitiesVision, Function-callingVision, Chat, Function-calling
LicenseApache 2.0Apache 2.0
ReleasedFeb 2026Jul 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Qwen3.5 397B A17B or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small leads llmrun Score 119.6 to 113.0; neither fits 24 GB. Choose Inkling Small for higher llmrun Score and ahead on the benchmarks.

Which needs less VRAM, Qwen3.5 397B A17B or Inkling Small?

At Q4_K_M, Qwen3.5 397B A17B requires 242.5 GB while Inkling Small needs 160.2 GB, making Inkling Small the easier model to run on your local setup.

Can I run Qwen3.5 397B A17B or Inkling Small on a 16 GB GPU?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B does not fit (smallest quant needs 111.5 GB); Inkling Small does not fit (smallest quant needs 76.3 GB).

Qwen3.5 397B A17B vs Inkling Small — VRAM & GPU Comparison | llmrun