Gemma 3 12B vs Phi-4 14B
Comparing VRAM requirements, performance, and capabilities for running these models locally with Ollama.
Parameters
12B
Context
128K
VRAM Range
10.5–28 GB
Recommended
Q4_K_M (10.5 GB)
ByGoogle·LicenseGemma Terms of Use
VRAM Requirements by Quantization
Side-by-side memory needs at each quality level.
| Quantization | Gemma 3 12B | Phi-4 14B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 10.5 GB | 9.9 GB | +0.6 GB |
| Q8_0 | 16 GB | 16 GB | 0.0 GB |
| F16 | 28 GB | — | — |
Capabilities
Feature support comparison.
| Capability | Gemma 3 12B | Phi-4 14B |
|---|---|---|
| text generation | Yes | Yes |
| code generation | Yes | Yes |
| reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| multilingual | Yes | — |
| vision | Yes | — |
| math | Yes | Yes |
| summarization | Yes | Yes |
Benchmark Scores
Higher is better. Scores from published evaluations.
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | Phi-4 14B |
|---|---|---|
| mmlu | 76.0 | 84.8 |
Hardware Compatibility
Can each model run at recommended quantization on common VRAM tiers?
| VRAM | Gemma 3 12B | Phi-4 14B |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | Offload | Offload |
| 12 GB | Tight | Runs |
| 16 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 24 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 32 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 48 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 64 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 96 GB | Runs | Runs |
Run Gemma 3 12B
ollama run gemma3:12b-it-q4_K_MRun Phi-4 14B
ollama run phi4:14b-q4_K_MCheck your exact hardware
Use the compatibility checker to see how each model performs on your specific GPU or Mac.