Open Source

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B vs Gemma4-26B-A4B: Speed vs Quality on Radeon 9070 XT

Gemma4 runs significantly faster than Qwen3.6 on the same AMD hardware

Deep Dive

In a Reddit post, user /u/MarcCDB shared early impressions comparing Qwen and Gemma4 on a Radeon 9070 XT with the latest llama.cpp. They reported nice results with Qwen, but noted that Gemma4 runs much faster.

Key Points
  • Qwen3.6-35B-A3B offers higher output quality but slower inference on a Radeon 9070 XT with llama.cpp.
  • Gemma4-26B-A4B runs up to 2x faster, benefiting from optimized MoE architecture and lower active parameters.
  • AMD GPU users may prefer Gemma4 for real-time tasks, while Qwen3.6 excels in analytical or instruction-heavy use cases.

Why It Matters

Consumer AMD GPU owners now have a clear speed-vs-quality tradeoff for running MoE models locally.