Is Llama 3 70B good enough to replace GPT-4?

For 80-90% of use cases, yes. Llama 3 70B handles chat, coding, analysis, and writing nearly as well. GPT-4 still excels at very complex reasoning and nuanced tasks.

What GPU do I need for Llama 3 70B?

RTX 4090 24GB can run it in Q4 quantization. For full quality, you'd need 2x RTX 4090 or professional cards like A100.

How much does GPT-4 cost vs running Llama locally?

GPT-4 costs $10-30 per million tokens. An RTX 4090 costs ~$1,600 but gives unlimited local inference forever. Break-even is around 50-150M tokens.

Model ComparisonUpdated December 2025

GPT-4 vs Llama 3

OpenAI vs Meta's best models

Quick VerdictGPT-4 Turbo Wins

GPT-4 still leads in overall quality, but Llama 3 70B is remarkably close. The real question is: do you prioritize quality or privacy/cost?

Choose GPT-4 Turbo if:

Choose GPT-4 for production apps where quality is paramount and you can afford API costs.

Choose Llama 3.1 70B if:

Choose Llama 3 70B for complete privacy, zero API costs, and when 90-95% of GPT-4 quality is enough.

GPT-4 is the industry benchmark, but Llama 3 70B runs locally and is closing the gap fast. Here's how they actually compare.

Specifications

Specification	GPT-4 Turbo	Llama 3.1 70B
Developer	OpenAI	Meta
Parameters	Undisclosed (~1.8T rumored)	70B
Context Length	128K	128K
VRAM (Minimum)	API only	40GB (Q4)
VRAM (Recommended)	API only	48GB+
Release Date	November 2023	July 2024
License	Proprietary (API access)	Llama 3.1 Community License

Benchmark Comparison

Category	GPT-4 Turbo	Llama 3.1 70B	Winner
MMLU (Knowledge)	86.4%	82.0%	GPT-4 Turbo
HumanEval (Coding)	87.1%	80.5%	GPT-4 Turbo
GSM8K (Math)	92.0%	90.0%	GPT-4 Turbo
Cost per 1M tokens	$10-30	$0 (local)	Llama 3.1 70B
Privacy	Data sent to OpenAI	100% local	Llama 3.1 70B

GPT-4 Turbo

by OpenAI

Strengths

Best overall quality
Massive training data
Excellent at complex reasoning
Best code generation

Weaknesses

API costs
No local deployment
Privacy concerns
Rate limits

Best For

Production apps with budgetComplex reasoning tasksWhen quality matters most

Llama 3.1 70B

by Meta

Strengths

Runs locally
No API costs
Complete privacy
Near-GPT-4 quality

Weaknesses

Needs expensive GPU
Slightly lower quality
Slower inference

Best For

Privacy-critical appsCost-sensitive deploymentsLocal AI enthusiasts

How to Run Llama 3.1 70B Locally →

Frequently Asked Questions

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Need Hardware for These Models?

Check our GPU buying guides to find the right hardware for running LLMs locally.

Specification

GPT-4 Turbo

Llama 3.1 70B

Developer

OpenAI