Performance ranking of models that run in 12 GB of VRAM (LMArena)

1. Rank Model Score (95% interval) Quantization that fits 12 GB
2. 1
   Qwen3.8-27B

   Qwen 27.3B qwen3.8-27b

   Score (95% interval) 1,433 1,429–1,438

   32,659 votes

   IQ2_S 12.9 GB

3. 2
   Qwen3.5-27B

   Qwen 26.9B qwen3.5-27b

   Score (95% interval) 1,409 1,404–1,413

   28,424 votes

   IQ2_M 12.8 GB

4. 3
   Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

   Qwen 34.7B qwen3.5-35b-a3b

   Score (95% interval) 1,394 1,390–1,398

   30,206 votes

   UD-IQ2_M 12.7 GB

5. 4
   Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507

   Qwen 30.5B Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct (2507)

   Score (95% interval) 1,382 1,377–1,387

   23,287 votes

   Q2_K_L 12.9 GB

6. 5
   gemma-3-27b-it

   google 27B Gemma 3 27B IT

   Score (95% interval) 1,365 1,362–1,369

   46,613 votes

   UD-IQ2_M 12.0 GB

7. 6
   GLM-4.7-Flash

   zai-org 29.9B glm-4.7-flash

   Score (95% interval) 1,364 1,359–1,370

   11,937 votes

   Q2_K_L 12.7 GB

8. 7
   Qwen3-32B

   Qwen 32.8B qwen3-32b

   Score (95% interval) 1,347 1,337–1,356

   3,926 votes

   UD-IQ2_XXS 12.3 GB

9. 8
   gemma-3-12b-it

   google 11.8B Gemma 3 12B IT

   Score (95% interval) 1,342 1,332–1,351

   3,829 votes

   UD-Q6_K_XL 12.7 GB

10. 9
    Qwen3-30B-A3B

    Qwen 30.5B qwen3-30b-a3b

    Score (95% interval) 1,326 1,322–1,331

    26,137 votes

    UD-IQ2_M 12.5 GB

11. 10
    gpt-oss-20b

    openai 20.9B gpt-oss-20b

    Score (95% interval) 1,318 1,311–1,324

    10,400 votes

    Q5_K_S 12.9 GB

12. 11
    gemma-3n-E4B-it

    google 6.9B Gemma 3n E4B IT

    Score (95% interval) 1,317 1,312–1,323

    22,106 votes

    UD-Q8_K_XL 11.8 GB

13. 12
    gemma-3-4b-it

    google 3.9B Gemma 3 4B IT

    Score (95% interval) 1,303 1,294–1,313

    4,171 votes

    BF16 9.19 GB

14. 13
    gemma-2-27b-it

    google 27.2B Gemma 2 27B IT

    Score (95% interval) 1,290 1,286–1,293

    75,754 votes

    IQ2_M 12.9 GB

15. 14
    granite-4.2-8b

    ibm-granite 8.8B Granite 4.2 8B

    Score (95% interval) 1,290 1,278–1,301

    3,196 votes

    Q8_0 11.4 GB

16. 15
    granite-4.2-3b

    ibm-granite 3.7B Granite 4.2 3B

    Score (95% interval) 1,289 1,277–1,301

    3,185 votes

    BF16 8.74 GB

17. 16
    Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501

    mistralai 23.6B Mistral Small 24B Instruct (2501)

    Score (95% interval) 1,274 1,268–1,280

    14,681 votes

    Q3_K_S 12.5 GB

18. 17
    Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct

    Qwen 32.8B qwen2.5-coder-32b-instruct

    Score (95% interval) 1,271 1,263–1,279

    5,432 votes

    IQ2_XXS 12.0 GB

19. 18
    gemma-2-9b-it

    google 9.2B Gemma 2 9B IT

    Score (95% interval) 1,267 1,263–1,271

    54,611 votes

    Q6_K 11.1 GB

20. 19
    phi-4

    microsoft 14.7B phi-4

    Score (95% interval) 1,256 1,252–1,261

    24,126 votes

    Q5_K_S 12.6 GB

21. 20
    gemma-2-2b-it

    google 2.6B Gemma 2 2B IT

    Score (95% interval) 1,200 1,196–1,204

    46,616 votes

    F32 12.2 GB

22. 21
    Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct

    meta-llama 3.2B Llama 3.2 3B Instruct

    Score (95% interval) 1,167 1,159–1,175

    7,936 votes

    F16 8.17 GB

23. 22
    Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.2

    mistralai 7.2B Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2

    Score (95% interval) 1,149 1,143–1,156

    19,402 votes

    Q8_0 9.37 GB

24. 23
    Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct

    meta-llama 1.2B Llama 3.2 1B Instruct

    Score (95% interval) 1,111 1,103–1,119

    8,045 votes

    F16 3.55 GB

25. 24
    gemma-2b-it

    lmstudio-ai 2.5B Gemma 2B IT

    Score (95% interval) 1,094 1,082–1,105

    4,780 votes

    Q8_0 3.89 GB

Estimated Memory at 8K: Estimated with a formula. Actual usage depends on your setup and settings.