Gemma 3 27B vs Qwen 2.5 32B
Comparing VRAM requirements, performance, and capabilities for running these models locally with Ollama.
Parameters
27B
Context
128K
VRAM Range
20–60 GB
Recommended
Q4_K_M (20 GB)
ByGoogle·LicenseGemma Terms of Use
Parameters
32B
Context
128K
VRAM Range
20.7–34 GB
Recommended
Q4_K_M (20.7 GB)
ByAlibaba·LicenseApache 2.0
VRAM Requirements by Quantization
Side-by-side memory needs at each quality level.
| Quantization | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen 2.5 32B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 20 GB | 20.7 GB | -0.7 GB |
| Q8_0 | 34 GB | 34 GB | 0.0 GB |
| F16 | 60 GB | — | — |
Capabilities
Feature support comparison.
| Capability | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen 2.5 32B |
|---|---|---|
| text generation | Yes | Yes |
| code generation | Yes | Yes |
| reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| multilingual | Yes | Yes |
| vision | Yes | — |
| math | Yes | Yes |
| creative writing | Yes | Yes |
| summarization | Yes | Yes |
| tool use | — | Yes |
Benchmark Scores
Higher is better. Scores from published evaluations.
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen 2.5 32B |
|---|---|---|
| mmlu | 78.5 | 83.3 |
Hardware Compatibility
Can each model run at recommended quantization on common VRAM tiers?
| VRAM | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen 2.5 32B |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | No | No |
| 12 GB | No | No |
| 16 GB | Offload | Offload |
| 24 GB | Runs | Tight |
| 32 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 48 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 64 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 96 GB | Runs | Runs |
Run Gemma 3 27B
ollama run gemma3:27b-it-q4_K_MRun Qwen 2.5 32B
ollama run qwen2.5:32b-instruct-q4_K_MCheck your exact hardware
Use the compatibility checker to see how each model performs on your specific GPU or Mac.