Qwen3.8-27B-MTPLX-Q4-Dynamic
Dynamic mixed-precision MTPLX conversion of Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B.
The model uses Q4 for most tensors while preserving higher precision for selected sensitive components. Native MTP weights are kept in BF16.
Quantization
Tensor distribution:
| Precision | Tensor count |
|---|---|
| Q4 | 602 |
| Q6 | 392 |
| Q8 | 4 |
The dynamic quantization strategy uses:
- Q4 for the majority of model weights
- Q6 for selected sensitive projections and transformer layers
- Q8 for selected high-sensitivity input/output components
- BF16 for native MTP weights
Local model size is approximately 18 GB before accounting for filesystem reporting differences.
MTP
- Native MTP weights: BF16
- Maximum verified MTP depth: 3
- Forge verdict:
mtp_depth_wins - All tested depths passed the Forge quality gate
Verification Results
Verified locally with MTPLX Forge.
| Mode | Speed | vs AR | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|
| AR / depth 0 | 14.12 tok/s | 1.00× | — |
| MTP depth 1 | 25.81 tok/s | 1.83× | 97.76% |
| MTP depth 2 | 31.90 tok/s | 2.26× | 96.85% / 91.34% |
| MTP depth 3 | 40.57 tok/s | 2.87× | 96.81% / 90.04% / 83.67% |
Best verified configuration:
AR: 14.12 tok/s
MTP depth 3: 40.57 tok/s
Speedup: 2.87×
Comparison with Other Builds
All variants below were verified on the same local system.
| Build | Approx. size | AR | MTP D3 | MTP speedup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 | ~15–16 GB | 15.74 tok/s | 44.34 tok/s | 2.82× |
| Mixed 4/6 | ~16 GB | 16.11 tok/s | 42.14 tok/s | 2.62× |
| Q4 Dynamic | ~18 GB | 14.12 tok/s | 40.57 tok/s | 2.87× |
| Q8 | ~28–30 GB | 9.36 tok/s | 29.03 tok/s | 3.10× |
The flat Q4 build provides the highest absolute throughput.
This Dynamic variant trades approximately 8–9% of MTP D3 throughput relative to flat Q4 for substantially higher precision across hundreds of selected tensors.
MTP Acceptance
At depth 3:
Position 1: 96.81%
Position 2: 90.04%
Position 3: 83.67%
The third speculative token is accepted more than 83% of the time in this verification run.
Quantization Strategy
The model was first converted with a custom MLX-LM quantization predicate.
Broadly:
Most tensors → Q4
Sensitive projections/layers → Q6
Selected input/output tensors → Q8
Native MTP sidecar → BF16
The already-quantized MLX trunk was then passed to MTPLX Forge as an mlx_affine_with_mtp source.
Forge therefore preserved the existing mixed-precision trunk instead of requantizing it as flat Q4.
Related Builds
Higher throughput:
Kecven/Qwen3.8-27B-MTPLX-Q4
Higher weight precision:
Kecven/Qwen3.8-27B-MTPLX-Q8
Performance Notes
Absolute throughput depends heavily on Apple Silicon generation, memory bandwidth, context length, thermals, and runtime configuration.
The relative AR-to-MTP measurements are generally more useful than comparing absolute token rates across different machines.
License
Apache-2.0, following the license of the original Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B model.