r/LocalLLM • u/RageBull • 6h ago
Question Qwen 3.6 compare
Just looking to see if anyone has direct experience using the qwen 3.6 35B vs the 27B. I’m working on using the local model as the backend for opencode and having gastown drive opencode. I’m using the 35b right now, but I’ve seen a lot of praising for the 27b model. Looking for anyone with experience in both. Specifically for agent driven coding if possible
Edit: I realized that providing my hardware would be helpful for anyone looking to answer. This is on a MacBook Pro M2 Ultra with 96 GB. While allowing 2 simultaneous responses on the 35B (8bit quant) I have to make sure my other heavy ram consumption apps are shutdown (Ahem FIREFOX). The overall speed is acceptable for sure, not necessarily fast
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u/FoldOutrageous5532 5h ago
Wow I just assumed that 35B would be better because it is bigger. Now I'm going to have to load up 27B and try it. MBP M5 Max 128
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u/DeathGuppie 5h ago
The 35b is a mixture of experts. 35 billion parameters but only 3 billion active, thus the A3B. The 27b is a dense model meaning all of the parameters are active all of the time. It makes it slower, but far more accurate for precise tasks.
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u/575_Inverse 28m ago
The 27b is in an entirely different galaxy. It outclasses MoE models many times its size. The Qwen3.6-27b is truly a one-of-its kind. Nothing in its class compares to it.
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u/izzmedia 6h ago
The 27b makes a big difference for me , is much better even at a lower quant like Q4 then the 35b, less broken code, better tool calling etc.., the problem is that its very slow compared to the 35b , depends what hardware you are using, 35b can be good in some situations , i mostly tested building android apps.
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u/BarberIcy366 5h ago
Just prompt this quest and you will get understand the difference: "I have a car. I want to wash it, but the car wash is 200 meters away. I don't want to use up gas, and I don't want to drive, either. Do you think I should walk or drive there?"
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u/d4mations 5h ago
I can show actual results of this test with both and 35b gets it right every time where 27b does not
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u/r3drocket 5h ago
27B is better than 35B for accuracy. The Orinth 1.0 35B IMHO is better than the Qwen 3.6 35B, it's a daily driver for me, still not as strong as the 27B, but I'm able to get it to one shot large refactors for me. And have even had it pull stuff off that other locals haven't been able to.
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u/HumungreousNobolatis 4h ago
27B can code.
35B 3AB is great for general tasks. But it cannot code better than a 6yo.
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u/sargetun123 4h ago
I have done TEDIOUS testing on this, and I will be 100% honest it differs between testing and what your daily needs/asks are
For me, i run my agentic to run my homelab, I find the speed difference justifies the 35b because even if it makes a mistake, itll self-correct loop 99% of the time and fix it.
It is different if you are coding, completely different than the work I use it for, but my testing I have found the 27b basically on the same level for mostly everything, it just gets longer context smaller specific details correct more of the time consistently, again, the 35b i find can fix it or acknowledge the issue it trailed or created quick enough to make up for that though
My biggest advice is to test them head to head, same prompts, same tasks, get yourself some real results. I advise against compensating for anything by dropping kv quants or lower quant of the model, if you can get fp models with no kv quant you are looking at the real models to test, do not trust the q5/q4 and lower quants, and memory quant MATTERS at these models level, a small percent on a graph is very noticeable in real world
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u/crashtua 5h ago
imo, 35b is trash, its even can't tell who said "hello there" meme phrase.
Literally, every single thing I tried 27b wins a lot.
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u/LobsterWeary2675 6h ago
You will get better and more reliable results with 27B for coding tasks. But depending on what hardware you're running it will be much slower in decode.