Table of Contents
Quick Verdict
Phi-3 Mini and Qwen 2.5 7B land within 2 percentage points of each other on HumanEval (48.1% versus 46.2%) — essentially a tie for code correctness. Phi-3 edges ahead on completions per minute (35 versus 33) but Qwen counters with 37% lower average latency (216 ms versus 345 ms). On a dedicated GPU server, this is one of the closest matchups in our benchmark series.
The deciding factor is likely your IDE integration: if your tooling optimises for throughput (batch completions), pick Phi-3. If it optimises for per-request latency (inline suggestions), pick Qwen.
Full data below. More at the GPU comparisons hub.
Specs Comparison
Both support 128K context, making them equally capable of processing large code files. Phi-3’s 45% smaller VRAM footprint is the practical differentiator.
| Specification | Phi-3 Mini | Qwen 2.5 7B |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 3.8B | 7B |
| Architecture | Dense Transformer | Dense Transformer |
| Context Length | 128K | 128K |
| VRAM (FP16) | 7.6 GB | 15 GB |
| VRAM (INT4) | 3.2 GB | 5.8 GB |
| Licence | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
Guides: Phi-3 Mini VRAM requirements and Qwen 2.5 7B VRAM requirements.
Code Generation Benchmark
Tested on an NVIDIA RTX 3090 with vLLM, INT4 quantisation, and continuous batching. See our tokens-per-second benchmark.
| Model (INT4) | HumanEval pass@1 | Completions/min | Avg Latency (ms) | VRAM Used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phi-3 Mini | 48.1% | 35 | 345 | 3.2 GB |
| Qwen 2.5 7B | 46.2% | 33 | 216 | 5.8 GB |
Qwen’s 37% lower latency makes individual completions feel snappier, even though Phi-3 churns through slightly more completions per minute. The accuracy difference is within margin of error. See our best GPU for LLM inference guide.
See also: Phi-3 Mini vs Qwen 2.5 7B for Chatbot / Conversational AI for a related comparison.
See also: LLaMA 3 8B vs Qwen 2.5 7B for Code Generation for a related comparison.
Cost Analysis
Nearly identical monthly costs make this a performance-driven decision, not an economic one.
| Cost Factor | Phi-3 Mini | Qwen 2.5 7B |
|---|---|---|
| GPU Required (INT4) | RTX 3090 (24 GB) | RTX 3090 (24 GB) |
| VRAM Used | 3.2 GB | 5.8 GB |
| Est. Monthly Server Cost | £94 | £92 |
| Throughput Advantage | 5% faster | 12% cheaper/tok |
See our cost-per-million-tokens calculator.
Recommendation
Choose Phi-3 Mini for batch code generation pipelines (CI/CD, test generation, migration scripts) where total completions per hour matters more than individual request speed, and where its smaller VRAM footprint enables co-location with other services.
Choose Qwen 2.5 7B for interactive IDE integrations where per-keystroke latency determines developer experience. Its 37% lower average latency makes inline suggestions feel more immediate.
Deploy on dedicated GPU servers for consistent code generation throughput.
Deploy the Winner
Run Phi-3 Mini or Qwen 2.5 7B on bare-metal GPU servers with full root access, no shared resources, and no token limits.
Browse GPU Servers
