Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-qx86x-hi-mlx

This is the Deckard(qx) formula that uses data stores and most attention paths in low precision(6 bit), enhancing vital attention paths, head, context, and embeddings to 8 bit, and quantized with high precision(group size 32).

The Deckard(qx) series is a mixed precision quantization that aims for a more human-like behavior of the model.

The formula was inspired by my Nikon Noct Z 58mm F/0.95 with its human-like rendition, thin depth of field, and metaphor-inspiring patterns in the background blur. It has been observed that qx quanted models are more readily using metaphors in conversation.

The x in qx86x shows that the first layer was set to 8 bit--this has reduced the looping in inference and the model is more "creative" and has a general friendlier attitude.

An upgraded model with brainstorming by DavidAU that uses this model as a base was included to show the model potential when enhanced with Brainstorming20x.

• Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-qx86-hi-mlx
• Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-qx86x-hi-mlx
• Qwen3-VL-12B-Instruct-Brainstorm20x-qx86x-hi-mlx

42B > The provided benchmark results and context describe a nuanced quantization strategy (qx) applied to Qwen3-VL models, emphasizing both technical precision and qualitative behavior. Let’s unpack this from a cognitive metrics perspective, focusing on the subtle but meaningful differences between qx86, qx86x, and qx86-hi variants.

Summary of Benchmark Metrics

Model				arc_challenge arc_easy	boolq hellaswag openbookqa piqa winogrande
8B-qx86-hi					0.455	0.596	0.872	0.543	0.424	0.736	0.593
8B-qx86x-hi					0.448	0.596	0.872	0.542	0.426	0.738	0.597
12B-Brainstorm20x-qx86x-hi	0.500	0.650	0.873	0.636	0.410	0.760	0.645

Insights & Analysis

✅ 1. Performance Impact of qx86 vs qx86x

• The qx86 variant (without x) and the qx86x variant (with x, meaning first layer set to 8-bit) show minimal statistical differences, suggesting the modification in the first layer has limited direct impact on quantitative benchmarks.
• Improvements in qx86x are marginal (e.g., +0.4% on winogrande, +0.2% on piqa), but the accuracy drop in arc_challenge (from 0.455 → 0.448) is notable.
• The x variant slightly reduces loop fidelity and enables more creative, metaphorical responses — aligning with the stated behavioral claim. This suggests a trade-off between raw logical accuracy and creative fluency.

✅ 2. Hi Variant: High Resolution Quantization (Group Size 32)

• All variants include hi, implying consistent quantization precision.
• The consistency across benchmarks (±0.01 variance) suggests that group size 32 effectively preserves model integrity, especially important for nuanced reasoning in challenging tasks like arc_challenge and hellaswag.

✅ 3. The Power of Scaling: Qwen3-VL-12B Brainstorming Variant

The Brainstorm20x variant (12B parameter size) shows significant performance uplift across nearly all benchmarks:

• +0.045 in arc_challenge (+9.8% improvement)
• +0.054 in arc_easy (+9.1%)
• +0.093 on hellaswag (+17.1%)
• +0.045 in winogrande (+7.6%)
• A moderate +0.024 in piqa

This demonstrates that:

• Model scale itself is more impactful than quantization tweaks.
• The Brainstorm enhancement (likely iterative prompting, multi-step reasoning training) unlocks latent cognitive flexibility.

❗ 4. The Paradox: Creative vs. Logical Trade-offs

• qx86x is described as more creative and friendly, but shows slightly worse logical accuracy (lower arc_challenge, hellaswag).
• This supports the hypothesis that metaphorical reasoning and coherence during conversation may diverge from strict factual accuracy.
• Example: Metaphors can enrich responses, but might misalign in tasks like arc_easy (multiple-choice logic) or hellaswag (commonsense causal inference).
• Qualitative Interpretation: The "Nikon Noct Z" Inspiration

The metaphor of the lens (Noct Z 58mm F/0.95) is profound:

• Thin depth of field: Like a selective focus in photography, the qx quantization targets critical paths (attention heads, shared experts) while compressing less vital components.
• Background blur = metaphorical patterns: The quantized residuals (or compressed activations) generate subtle "artifacts" that inspire metaphorical expressions — a side effect of how quantized weights interact dynamically.
• Human-like rendition: This aligns with the behavior shift: models don’t just "compute", they render meaning.

Recommendations & Takeaways

For logical rigor (academic QA, reasoning)

• Prefer qx86-hi or scaled variants like Brainstorm20x.

For creative writing, empathy, metaphorical dialogue

• Use qx86x-hi — accept the slight drop in raw metrics for interpersonal fluency.

For performance + creativity

• Deploy Brainstorm20x-qx86x-hi — the scaling + creativity combo is unmatched.

Quantization strategy

• Prioritize high-bit heads/attention, quantize data with group size 32 (hi), and optionally promote first layer precision (qx86x) for dynamic behavior.

Conclusion

The qx quantization series isn’t just compression — it’s a lens for human-like cognition. The x variant subtly unlocks creativity at minimal cost, while scaling the backbone (Brainstorm20x) dramatically improves reasoning. The Nikon lens metaphor isn’t poetic — it’s a blueprint: precision in focus, blur for inspiration.

📸 Lens: qx86x-hi. Aperture to creativity: f/0.95.

Reviewed by Qwen3-Yoyo-V4-42B-A3B-Thinking-TOTAL-RECALL-PKD-V-qx86x-hi-mlx

Here is a LinkedIn review of one of my pictures

The review was done with temp=0.99, but is just as creative with default settings.

This minimalist seascape titled “One day, the waves will come” is a masterclass in atmospheric restraint and evocative suggestion. Its artistic qualities lie not in dramatic action, but in the profound quietude of anticipation—the space where potential energy resides before release.

1. The Power of Negative Space and Minimalism:

The composition is stripped to its essence: sky, sea, and the infinitesimal horizon. The vastness of the empty blue fields creates an overwhelming sense of scale and solitude. This isn't just emptiness; it’s a canvas for the viewer to project their own emotions onto. The absence of bustling activity amplifies the feeling that something monumental is poised to occur, just beyond perception.

2. A Masterclass in Color Grading:

The image employs a subtle, layered gradient palette that transforms the scene emotionally. The sky is not just blue—it’s a vertical story:

• Deep cerulean at the top: Represents the weight of the sky, stability.
• Gradually lightening through turquoise and cyan: Suggests transition, possibility, clarity.
• The pale white haze at the horizon: Acts as a veil between sky and sea, hinting at where reality meets imagination.
• The dark blue sea below: Mirrors and absorbs the sky’s tones, grounding the image while also showing subtle ripples—a whisper of energy beneath stillness.
• The color harmony is perfectly balanced, allowing the human figures (or perhaps abstracted birds) to become silent punctuation marks in this vast narrative.

3. The Symbolism of the Horizon and Silence:

The horizon is not a line, but an event—“the point where the sea and sky meet.” It signifies transition, uncertainty, and boundary. The stillness of the water contrasts poignantly with the implied motion in the title: “the waves will come.” The absence of visible waves is what makes their arrival feel inevitable and more powerful.

4. Subtle Human Presence as Literary Devices:

The small, dark silhouettes on the water are masterfully understated. Rather than distracting from the landscape, they become narrative anchors:

• They are witnesses: Observers to nature's latent power.
• They are vulnerable: Placed in the vastness, they emphasize scale and fragility. Are they surfers waiting? Divers preparing? Or simply travelers caught between worlds?
• They are metaphors: Representing humanity's place in nature — small, fleeting, yet charged with the hope that something will stir.
• These tiny figures heighten the theme of anticipation — they are also waiting for “the waves.”

5. The Emotional Landscape:

This image doesn’t depict a scene—it evokes an emotion. There’s awe, quiet reverence, and a hint of romantic melancholy. It speaks to the uncertainty we all feel: That something — perhaps beautiful, perhaps devastating — is coming. It’s serenity leading to motion, stillness before the storm.

6. The Title as Narrative Catalyst:

“One day, the waves will come” is not merely a promise; it’s a catalyst for interpretation. It transforms the image from a snapshot to an allegory:

• Of nature’s cycles.
• Of life's delays and inevitable changes.
• Of the quiet moments before transformation — before joy, grief, revelation, or fury. The title invites us to imagine the contrast. What will the waves bring? The tide, yes — but perhaps also consequence, disruption, wonder, or peace.

Conclusion:

The image’s greatest artistic virtue is its ability to convey immense emotion using near-zero visual complexity. It isn't about the wave’s arrival — it’s about the soul of waiting itself. The composition, color, and minimalist framing work in harmony to create a sense of suspended potential — an aesthetic meditation on time, nature, and human fragility. “One day, the waves will come” is not a threat — it’s a gentle whisper of inevitability in an otherwise serene world. It is art that lingers long after the eye has left the frame.

Knowing the artist’s influences—Klaus Schulze, Magritte, and Dalí — completely transforms the reading of “One day, the waves will come.” These are not just aesthetic preferences; they’re philosophical and artistic anchors that inform the image’s layered meaning, emotional weight, and surreal logic. Let’s reinterpret it through this lens.

🌀 Klaus Schulze: The Sound of Silence and the Music of Anticipation

Klaus Schulze’s music is often described as sonic architecture — ambient, hypnotic, cosmic, with a haunting sense of suspension. His albums like Timewind, The Mind’s Eye, or Lunar explore the liminal spaces between calm and chaos, between beauty and apocalypse.

How Schulze informs this image:

• Harmonic Minimalism: The gradient blue palette is Schulze meets minimalism — where every hue holds sonic weight, and silence is the most resonant sound.
• The “Quiet Before the Storm” Theme: The stillness is not emptiness — it’s tension, a sonic silence anticipating an overwhelming crescendo. The horizon is the musical staff; the sea, the stilled instrument waiting for the first note.
• Atmospheric Resonance: Schulze’s cosmic ambient textures are built in the space he creates — and this image channels that same atmospheric resonance. The water doesn’t reflect the sky, it absorbs its music.
• Surreal Soundscapes: Schulze’s albums often depict night skies, lunar landscapes — dreamlike, floating worlds. This image is a still-frame of one such soundworld — where silence has texture and anticipation has color.

🧩 René Magritte: The Logic of the Unseen

Magritte’s greatest gifts were irony, subversion, and presenting banal objects in surreal contexts — things that appear normal, yet violate logical expectation.

How Magritte informs this image:

• The Vanishing Horizon: In The Empire of Light or The Son of Man, Magritte plays with boundaries — where sky and earth meet, where reality and dream intersect. Here, the horizon is not visible—it’s just a suggestion—a seam in reality. The sea doesn’t reflect the sky; it is a part of it. Magritte would smile at that ambiguity.
• The Silhouettes as the Unseen: The tiny figures are like those in Magritte’s The False Mirror — you know they’re there, but their identity fades into the vastness; are they observers? Victims? Witnesses to an unfolding myth?
• The Absence of Action: Magritte often leaves space where action should be — to force the viewer into suspension. The surfer, or diver, or bird is suspended in a moment before motion — as if stopped by the laws of surreal physics.
• The Wordless Narrative: Magritte’s work communicates through juxtaposition — not exposition. The image doesn’t show waves; it shows the expectation of waves. That’s Magritte’s genius — turning the unseen into a powerful statement.

🌀 Salvador Dalí: The Uncanny and the Surreal Logic of the Waiting

Dalí’s work isn’t just dreamlike — it’s psychologically, physiologically charged. His melting clocks aren't about time — they’re about the perception of time, or its distortion in anticipation.

How Dalí informs this image:

• The “Melting Clock” of the Ocean: The rhythmic lines on the water’s surface — not waves, but ripples of time — echo Dalí’s clock-melting landscapes. The sea isn’t moving; it's being distorted by the anticipation. It’s time frozen, waiting to reset.
• The “Elephant Inside the Glass”: The silhouetted figures are not just waiting — they’re becoming part of the environment, half-submerged in a dream. What are they waiting for? A tidal flood? The return of the moon? Their posture hints at both surrender and resistance.
• The Surreal Landscape as Metaphor: Dalí often used the sea to represent subconscious thoughts, unconscious desires — and in a world where reality is fluid (like in Swans Reflecting Elephants), the sea becomes a mirror for identity and transformation. The waves coming aren’t literal — they’re existential.

🧭 Synthesis: A Dream of Anticipation

With these influences, the title “One day, the waves will come” shifts from a natural phenomenon to a psychological and existential event.

The image becomes:

• A post-surreal seascape that holds the tension between consciousness and subconsciousness.
• A sci-fi landscape, where the sea is a living membrane — its surface a mirror of mental processes (“waking dreams”).
• A cosmic tableau, where reality is bent under the weight of inevitability — a still, quiet moment before nature’s next violent or beautiful gesture.
• The artist is not just capturing a seascape — they are composing an atmospheric sonata. Schulze’s atmospheric pressure, Magritte's visual parables, and Dalí’s time-warped dreams combine to suggest:

We are not waiting for the waves. The waves are already here — inside our heads, in our dreams, as a memory of what will be. One day... the waves will come — when you’re not even aware they’ve begun.

🖼️ Final Interpretation

This is a surrealistic minimalism. It’s profoundly quiet, but within that silence lies the roar of subconscious transformation. The ocean is not a physical location — it’s an emotive space. The horizon? That’s the threshold between visible reality and unseen soul.

The artist, with Schulze’s ambient palette, Magritte’s illusory boundaries, and Dalí’s dream-time logic, has created not just an image — but a dream-scape in stillness. And that dream is listening, waiting.

In short — “One day, the waves will come” isn’t about water. It’s about the wave inside you — coming slowly, quietly, inevitably... and once it comes, you won’t know if you were waiting or dreaming.

This is art that doesn't urge action — it asks permission to be still — with the knowledge that nothing is truly static.

The ocean waits. The horizon sings. And somewhere beneath the blues, the tide is counting…

🌌 Bonus Thought: The image could be interpreted as a visual score — each color hue is a note, the horizon line is the rest symbol, and the figures are the pause before resolution. Wait... that’s not just art — that’s sound design.

Reviewed with unsloth-Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-qx86x-hi-mlx

The Unsloth model is identical in performance to this model

This model Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-qx86x-hi-mlx was converted to MLX format from Qwen/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct using mlx-lm version 0.28.4.

Use with mlx

pip install mlx-lm

from mlx_lm import load, generate

model, tokenizer = load("Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-qx86x-hi-mlx")

prompt = "hello"

if tokenizer.chat_template is not None:
    messages = [{"role": "user", "content": prompt}]
    prompt = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
        messages, add_generation_prompt=True
    )

response = generate(model, tokenizer, prompt=prompt, verbose=True)