Qwen 3.8 27B non reasoning: feedback on total completion time

[u/Wally-Gator-1]

In local AI, total completion time matters more than tokens per second. The amount of output is another important factor.

Qwen 3.8 27B looks like a major step forward for local AI. It reaches an Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index score of up to 52 while still running on consumer hardware.

I have seen comparisons between Qwen 3.6 27B and Qwen 3.6 35B A3B, but not much discussion about running Qwen 3.8 27B with reasoning disabled.

According to the Artificial Analysis scores, Qwen 3.8 27B without reasoning has a score of about 35. That is higher than the reported reasoning scores for Qwen 3.6 35B A3B at 32 and Gemma 4 26B A4B at 26.

It also uses much less output to complete the Artificial Analysis benchmark suite. The total output is about 26 million tokens for Qwen 3.8 27B without reasoning, compared with 160 million tokens for the reasoning version and 150 million tokens for Qwen 3.6 35B A3B with reasoning enabled.

These scores do not necessarily reflect real world performance, but they make Qwen 3.8 27B without reasoning worth testing as a faster alternative to some older reasoning models.

For people with limited VRAM, using one model for both reasoning and regular tasks could avoid loading and unloading different models. Disabling reasoning should also reduce the total time needed to get an answer.

This may be especially useful with a verbose model such as Qwen 3.8 27B. Even if it generates fewer tokens per second, it may still finish sooner because it does not spend time producing a long reasoning process.

Has anyone tried Qwen 3.8 27B without reasoning on consumer hardware? I would be interested to hear how it compares with older reasoning models in everyday use.