Updated
Updated · heise online · Jul 16
Google Releases Gemma-4 Diffusion Model Hitting 5,000 Tokens a Second as Quality Lags
Updated
Updated · heise online · Jul 16

Google Releases Gemma-4 Diffusion Model Hitting 5,000 Tokens a Second as Quality Lags

1 articles · Updated · heise online · Jul 16

Summary

  • Google’s new Gemma-4 discrete-diffusion model generated 4,000 to 5,000 tokens per second in tests on an Nvidia RTX 5090, far above roughly 300 tokens per second for the standard model.
  • The speed comes from speculative decoding via discrete diffusion, which can produce up to 256 tokens at once and is aimed mainly at draft prediction rather than final responses.
  • Response quality was weak in the reported tests: the model often produced tokens without displaying a usable answer, limiting its appeal outside acceleration workflows.
  • Google’s release adds a rare text-focused diffusion model to the open Gemma-4 family, while rival approaches such as DeepSeek’s DSpark claim even bigger gains but still lack mature software support.

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