Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3-14B?

Gemma 4 12B: about 9.3 GB at Q4_K_M, against 11.3 GB for Qwen3-14B. At Q8_0 it's 15.6 GB vs 19.0 GB.

Which is faster locally, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3-14B?

Decode speed is limited by how many bytes are read per token. Gemma 4 12B reads 12.0B parameters per token and Qwen3-14B reads 14.8B, so Gemma 4 12B should be faster on the same machine. Our estimate on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB at Q4 is 24–34 tok/s vs 19–27 tok/s. These are estimates, not benchmarks.

What is the cheapest GPU for Gemma 4 12B and Qwen3-14B?

At Q4: Intel Arc B580 ($249) for Gemma 4 12B; Radeon RX 7600 XT ($329) for Qwen3-14B. Prices are dated list-price snapshots.

Can a Mac run Gemma 4 12B and Qwen3-14B?

The cheapest Mac or mini PC we track for Gemma 4 12B is the Mac mini M6 16GB ($899). For Qwen3-14B it's the Mac mini M6 24GB ($1,299).

Which is better, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3-14B?

We don't score answer quality. This comparison covers memory, context cache, hardware and speed. Pick the one that fits your hardware, then test both on your own prompts.

Gemma 4 12B vs Qwen3-14B: VRAM and speed for running locally

Side by side: how much memory each model needs at Q4, Q8 and FP16, how the KV cache grows with context, the cheapest GPU and Mac that run each, and estimated speed on 11 common machines.

Gemma 4 12B is lighter: about 9.3 GB at Q4 against 11.3 GB for Qwen3-14B, so it runs on 63 tracked devices vs 48. It should also be faster on the same hardware, since it reads 12.0B parameters per token against 14.8B. Which one gives better answers depends on your task, so check benchmarks for that; this page covers what it takes to run them.

Gemma 4 12B vs Qwen3-14B: specs and memory
	Gemma 4 12B	Qwen3-14B
Maker	google	Qwen
License	apache-2.0	apache-2.0
Type	Dense	Dense
Total parameters	12.0B	14.8B
Active per token	12.0B all	14.8B all
Memory at Q4_K_M	9.3 GB	11.3 GB
Memory at Q8_0	15.6 GB	19.0 GB
Memory at FP16	28.5 GB	35.0 GB
KV cache growth	not modeled	164 MB per 1k tokens, FP16
Memory at Q4, 32k context	cache not modeled	16.0 GB 5.4 GB cache
Cheapest GPU at Q4	Intel Arc B580 $249	Radeon RX 7600 XT $329
Cheapest Mac / mini PC at Q4	Mac mini M6 16GB $899	Mac mini M6 24GB $1,299
Cheapest GPU at Q8	Radeon RX 7900 XT $899	Intel Arc Pro B70 32GB $949
Tracked devices that run it at Q4	63 of 82	48 of 82

Estimated speed on the same hardware

Decode tokens per second at Q4_K_M from memory bandwidth (how we estimate). MoE figures are upper bounds ("up to"). Estimates, not benchmarks.

Estimated tokens per second, Gemma 4 12B vs Qwen3-14B
Device	Gemma 4 12B	Qwen3-14B
GeForce RTX 3060 12GB12 GB usable · 360 GB/s · $329	30–42	tight fit
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB16 GB usable · 288 GB/s · $499	24–34	19–27
GeForce RTX 508016 GB usable · 960 GB/s · $999	79–113	64–91
GeForce RTX 309024 GB usable · 936 GB/s · $1,499	77–110	63–89
Radeon RX 7900 XTX24 GB usable · 960 GB/s · $999	79–113	64–91
GeForce RTX 509032 GB usable · 1792 GB/s · $1,999	148–210	120–170
Mac mini M6 24GB18 GB usable · 170 GB/s · $1,299	11–19	9–15
Mac mini M6 32GB24 GB usable · 170 GB/s · $1,799	11–19	9–15
Mac mini M5 Pro 64GB48 GB usable · 307 GB/s · $3,199	19–34	15–27
Framework Desktop (Ryzen AI Max+ 395) 128GB96 GB usable · 256 GB/s · $3,449	16–28	13–23
MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB96 GB usable · 614 GB/s · $6,699	38–68	31–55

Hardware that runs only one of them

Run Gemma 4 12B but not Qwen3-14B: Intel Arc B580, GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, Radeon RX 7700 XT, GeForce RTX 5070, GeForce RTX 4070, GeForce RTX 4070 Super, Mac mini M6 16GB, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.

Current priced devices, cheapest first, at Q4 with ~4k context.

Quick answers

Which needs less VRAM, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3-14B?: Gemma 4 12B: about 9.3 GB at Q4_K_M, against 11.3 GB for Qwen3-14B. At Q8_0 it's 15.6 GB vs 19.0 GB.
Which is faster locally, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3-14B?: Decode speed is limited by how many bytes are read per token. Gemma 4 12B reads 12.0B parameters per token and Qwen3-14B reads 14.8B, so Gemma 4 12B should be faster on the same machine. Our estimate on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB at Q4 is 24–34 tok/s vs 19–27 tok/s. These are estimates, not benchmarks.
What is the cheapest GPU for Gemma 4 12B and Qwen3-14B?: At Q4: Intel Arc B580 ($249) for Gemma 4 12B; Radeon RX 7600 XT ($329) for Qwen3-14B. Prices are dated list-price snapshots.
Can a Mac run Gemma 4 12B and Qwen3-14B?: The cheapest Mac or mini PC we track for Gemma 4 12B is the Mac mini M6 16GB ($899). For Qwen3-14B it's the Mac mini M6 24GB ($1,299).
Which is better, Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3-14B?: We don't score answer quality. This comparison covers memory, context cache, hardware and speed. Pick the one that fits your hardware, then test both on your own prompts.

Related comparisons

phi-4 vs Qwen3-14B11.2 vs 11.3 GB

All comparisons · MoE vs dense · Q4 vs Q8 vs FP16 · Context length and VRAM · VRAM calculator

Gemma 4 12B vs Qwen3-14B: VRAM and speed for running locally

Estimated speed on the same hardware

Hardware that runs only one of them

Quick answers

Related comparisons

New models, and what they need to run