Llama vs Qwen: which model family should you try?
Both families have broad Hugging Face ecosystems. The better choice depends on language coverage, toolchain support, license terms, model size and the workload you can actually test.
Decision summary
Compare capabilities, not branding
Model-family labels cover many base, instruct, code, vision, audio and quantized variants. Choose candidates that match the task first, then compare evaluation evidence, context requirements, runtime compatibility and memory use.
Popular Llama results in the index
meta-llama/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct
meta-llama/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 6 GB. Access approval is required on Hugging Face.
meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 24 GB. Access approval is required on Hugging Face.
dphn/dolphin-2.9.1-yi-1.5-34b
dphn/dolphin-2.9.1-yi-1.5-34b is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 80 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
meta-llama/Prompt-Guard-86M
meta-llama/Prompt-Guard-86M is a text classification model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 8 GB. Access approval is required on Hugging Face.
JonathanColetti/Qwen3.8-27B-Uncensored-GGUF
JonathanColetti/Qwen3.8-27B-Uncensored-GGUF is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 24 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
HuggingFaceTB/SmolLM2-135M
HuggingFaceTB/SmolLM2-135M is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 8 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
Popular Qwen results in the index
Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B
Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 4 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct is a image text to text model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 24 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
Qwen/Qwen3-8B
Qwen/Qwen3-8B is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 24 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-GGUF
unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-GGUF is a text generation model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 24 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
Qwen/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-FP8
Qwen/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-FP8 is a image text to text model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 80 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B
Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B is a image text to text model indexed for deployment research. Estimated minimum GPU memory is 24 GB. It is publicly listed on Hugging Face.
A fair evaluation workflow
- Select models with similar parameter counts and intended task.
- Use the same prompt set, decoding settings and output-quality rubric.
- Measure latency, throughput and peak GPU memory on the same hardware.
- Test the languages, safety cases and structured outputs your product needs.
- Record the exact revision, quantization and runtime before deciding.
Popularity and download counts are discovery signals, not proof that one family is better. AI Pentium is independent and is not affiliated with Meta, Alibaba or Hugging Face.
Compare selected models side by side