Two popular small models compared: Mistral's efficient 7B vs Meta's tiny-but-capable 3B. Which small model should you run locally?
Quality
🏆 Mistral 7BMistral 7B produces higher quality outputs across most benchmarks, as expected from its larger size.
Speed
🏆 Llama 3.2 3BLlama 3.2 3B runs roughly 2x faster due to its smaller size, making it great for real-time applications.
Resource Usage
🏆 Llama 3.2 3BLlama 3.2 3B needs only 3GB VRAM vs 6GB for Mistral 7B. Runs on virtually any hardware.
Coding
🏆 Mistral 7BMistral 7B handles code generation significantly better with its larger parameter count.
Context Length
🏆 Llama 3.2 3BLlama 3.2 supports 128K context vs 32K for Mistral 7B.
🎯 Which Should You Choose?
If you have 8GB+ VRAM, Mistral 7B delivers noticeably better quality. If you're on limited hardware or need fast responses, Llama 3.2 3B is impressively capable for its size. For edge/mobile deployment, Llama 3.2 3B is the clear choice.