Gemma 3 4B vs Phi-4 Mini 3.8B
Comparing VRAM requirements, performance, and capabilities for running these models locally with Ollama.
Parameters
4B
Context
128K
VRAM Range
5–11.5 GB
Recommended
Q4_K_M (5 GB)
By Google · License Gemma Terms of Use
Parameters
3.8B
Context
128K
VRAM Range
4.5–10.5 GB
Recommended
Q4_K_M (4.5 GB)
By Microsoft · License MIT
VRAM Requirements by Quantization
Side-by-side memory needs at each quality level.
| Quantization | Gemma 3 4B | Phi-4 Mini 3.8B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 5 GB | 4.5 GB | +0.5 GB |
| Q8_0 | 7.5 GB | 6.5 GB | +1.0 GB |
| F16 | 11.5 GB | 10.5 GB | +1.0 GB |
Capabilities
Feature support comparison.
| Capability | Gemma 3 4B | Phi-4 Mini 3.8B |
|---|---|---|
| text generation | Yes | Yes |
| code generation | Yes | Yes |
| reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| multilingual | Yes | — |
| vision | Yes | — |
| summarization | Yes | Yes |
| math | — | Yes |
Benchmark Scores
Higher is better. Scores from published evaluations.
| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Phi-4 Mini 3.8B |
|---|---|---|
| mmlu | 62.0 | 70.0 |
Hardware Compatibility
Can each model run at recommended quantization on common VRAM tiers?
| VRAM | Gemma 3 4B | Phi-4 Mini 3.8B |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | Runs | Runs |
| 12 GB | Runs | 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 4B
ollama run 4b-it-q4_K_M Run Phi-4 Mini 3.8B
ollama run 3.8b-q4_K_M Check your exact hardware
Use the compatibility checker to see how each model performs on your specific GPU or Mac.