| The comment: https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/21038#issuecomment-4150413357 I think this could be great for existing q8 users. Personally I'll be sticking with fp16 for the foreseeable future. [link] [comments] |
In the recent kv rotation PR it was found that the existing q8 kv quants tank performance on AIME25, but can be recovered mostly with rotation
Reddit r/LocalLLaMA / 3/30/2026
💬 OpinionDeveloper Stack & InfrastructureSignals & Early TrendsTools & Practical Usage
Key Points
- A recent “KV rotation” PR in llama.cpp found that existing Q8 KV quantization can significantly reduce performance on the AIME25 benchmark.
- The reported performance drop is largely recoverable by applying the KV rotation technique rather than relying solely on the prior Q8 KV quantization setup.
- The discussion suggests potential value for users already running Q8 KV quantized models, though at least one commenter plans to stay on FP16 for now.
- The takeaways mainly affect local LLM inference quality/benchmark outcomes when using quantized KV-cache strategies, implying adjustments to quantization workflows may be needed.
- Overall, the thread highlights an optimization/technique that can improve the practical tradeoff between memory/compute efficiency (Q8) and accuracy (benchmark performance).
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