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Fun local LLM comparisons with Gemma, Granite, and Qwen
Ekorbia v0.2 features a comparison-chat mode that runs 2-3 local models against the same prompt in parallel. Here are a few fun prompts running across Gemma 4 (e2b), IBM Granite 4.1 (8B), and Qwen 3.5 (4B) on my 32 GB M1 Max MacBook Pro.
1. The Pizza Question #
New York City is widely regarded as having the best pizza due to its iconic thin-crust style. The models were initially reluctant to give a single answer until I attached the following additional prompt: "Provide clear, concise, opinionated answers to comparison or 'best' questions. Each comparison should have a single winner and a runner-up with a short explanation."
The New York City and Naples answers are acceptable but Granite is clearly wrong here with the runner-up of Chicago deep-dish pizza! And no mention of New Haven style pizza anywhere?
2. Explain Hacker News #
It’s a sprawling, perpetually messy digital common room.
Gemma is the most fun here, carrying the 'grumpy librarian' voice across multiple paragraphs while Granite and Qwen provide more serious answers with a sprinkling of grumpy librarian at the beginning and the end.
3. Will robots take over? #
There is no consensus among experts that unchecked AI growth will inevitably lead to a robot takeover of Earth.
All three models take the question seriously and none think we are doomed to a Terminator like future.
Things to watch for with Ekorbia comparison mode. #
Memory matters. Three large models running in parallel can blow past 32 GB on my MacBook. Ollama will swap them in and out, which makes the "parallel" feel serial. - First-token latency varies wildly. A column that's still showing dots while another is mid-paragraph isn't broken — it's cold-. - Granite 4.1 (8B) is fast. It's worth a try if you've mostly been using Qwen or Gemma.
Send us yours #
Got a prompt that produces a hilarious three-way disagreement? Open an issue with the prompt and the three outputs and we'll feature the best ones in a follow-up.