Gemma 2 27B vs Mixtral 8x7B (MoE)
Size, context window, license, approximate VRAM and the minimum local hardware each model needs — computed from our catalog and compatibility engine, not benchmarks.
| Gemma 2 27B | Mixtral 8x7B (MoE) | |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 27B | 47B total / ~13B active (MoE) |
| Context window | 8K tokens | 32K tokens |
| License | Gemma Terms of Use | Apache-2.0 |
| ~VRAM @ 4-bit (Q4_K_M) | ~17 GB | ~28 GB |
| ~VRAM @ 8-bit (Q8_0) | ~29 GB | ~50 GB |
| Minimum device | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA RTX A6000 |
| Recommended device | Supermicro 8x H100 SuperServer | Supermicro 8x H100 SuperServer |
| Deployment | Local / on-prem | Hybrid |
| Capabilities | Multilingual | Tools, Multilingual |
Highlighted cells mark the lighter / longer / more permissive side per row, for local deployment. Informational rows have no winner.
Bottom line
Gemma 2 27B (~27B) is lighter than Mixtral 8x7B (MoE) (~47B), so it runs on more modest hardware, while Mixtral 8x7B (MoE) trades a larger footprint for more capacity. At 4-bit, Gemma 2 27B needs about 17GB versus ~28GB, a meaningful gap when choosing a GPU. Mixtral 8x7B (MoE) advertises the longer context window (32K vs 8K), which helps with long documents. Mixtral 8x7B (MoE)'s Apache-2.0 license is the more permissive of the two for commercial use. Minimum viable hardware differs: Gemma 2 27B starts on a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, Mixtral 8x7B (MoE) on a NVIDIA RTX A6000. Figures are approximate working-set estimates, not benchmarks — verify the exact release before committing hardware.
Pick Gemma 2 27B if you want the lighter footprint and cheaper hardware.
Pick Mixtral 8x7B (MoE) if you have the memory to spare and want the larger model, or you need the longer 32K context window, or you want the more permissive Apache-2.0 license.
Needs 24GB+ for comfortable 4-bit inference (RTX 3090/4090 class). Short context limits very long documents.
~28GB+ at 4-bit; suits 48GB pro cards or unified-memory machines. Sparse activation gives good speed for the quality.
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