How good are local models at recognising cats from a very small image?

[jrp2014]

With the prompt Describe this image briefly. and using each model’s default mlx-vlm chat template, I get:

Model	Output on cats.jpg
HuggingFaceTB/SmolVLM-Instruct	Two cats are sleeping on a pink blanket on a couch.
LiquidAI/LFM2.5-VL-450M-MLX-bf16	FAILED: Model loading failed: Received 2 parameters not in model: multi_modal_projector.layer_norm.bias, multi_modal_projector.layer_norm.weight.
Qwen/Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct	This is a close-up photograph of two cats sleeping on a bright pink couch. The cat on the left is a tabby with a black and grey pattern, lying on its back with its eyes closed. The cat on the right is a calico with a brown and black striped pattern, also lying on its back. Both cats are resting peacefully. There are two remote controls on the couch, one white and one with a blue button.
facebook/pe-av-large	FAILED: Model loading failed: missing incomplete Hugging Face cache blob.
jqlive/Kimi-VL-A3B-Thinking-2506-6bit	◁think▷So, let's describe the image. First, there are two tabby cats on a pink fabric surface...◁/think▷The image shows two tabby cats resting on a pink fabric surface. The cat on the left lies on its side, facing the other cat, while the cat on the right lies on its back, also facing the left cat. Both cats have striped fur with a mix of brown, black, and white patterns.
meta-llama/Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct	The image shows two tabby cats lying on a pink blanket, with two remote controls placed on the couch behind them. The cat on the left is a kitten with a fluffy tail and a green collar, while the cat on the right is an adult with a striped pattern.
microsoft/Phi-3.5-vision-instruct	Two cats are sleeping on a pink couch with remote controls beside them. Repeats <|end|><|endoftext|> until token cap.
mlx-community/FastVLM-0.5B-bf16	Two cats are sleeping on a pink couch next to two remote controls.
mlx-community/GLM-4.6V-Flash-6bit	The image shows two tabby cats resting on a bright pink couch. One cat lies on its side, eyes closed, with a remote control nearby. The other cat, larger and more robust, rests with its head down, also near a remote.
mlx-community/GLM-4.6V-Flash-mxfp4	This image shows two tabby cats resting on a bright pink couch. One cat lies on its side, while the other is curled with its head down. Two remote controls are also visible on the couch.
mlx-community/Idefics3-8B-Llama3-bf16	In this image we can see two cats on the sofa. There are two remotes on the sofa.<end_of_utterance>
mlx-community/InternVL3-14B-8bit	Two cats are sleeping on a pink blanket with two remote controls nearby.
mlx-community/InternVL3-8B-bf16	The image shows two cats sleeping on a pink blanket. One cat is a small kitten, and the other is a larger adult cat. Both are lying on their sides, and there are two remote controls placed near them on the couch.
mlx-community/LFM2-VL-1.6B-8bit	Two cats are sleeping on a pink blanket.
mlx-community/LFM2.5-VL-1.6B-bf16	Two cats are sleeping on a pink blanket on a couch.
mlx-community/Llama-3.2-11B-Vision-Instruct-8bit	The image shows two tabby cats lying on a pink blanket, with two remote controls placed on the couch behind them.
mlx-community/MiniCPM-V-4.6-8bit	The image shows two cats lying on a pink blanket. There are remote controls on the blanket as well.
mlx-community/Ministral-3-14B-Instruct-2512-mxfp4	This image shows two cats lying on their backs on a pink blanket or cushion. Both cats appear relaxed and playful, with their legs stretched out and paws in the air. One cat is smaller, possibly a kitten, while the other is larger, likely an adult. There are two remote controls placed near them on the blanket.
mlx-community/Ministral-3-14B-Instruct-2512-nvfp4	This image shows two tabby cats lounging on a pink blanket. Both cats appear relaxed, lying on their sides with their legs stretched out. One cat faces left, while the other faces right, and there seem to be remote controls near them.
mlx-community/Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512-4bit	In this image, there are two cats lying on a soft, pink cushion or blanket. - The cat on the left appears to be a kitten, with a smaller size, fluffy fur, and a relaxed posture. - The cat on the right is an adult, with a more robust build, striped tabby fur, and is stretched out comfortably, looking slightly at the kitten. Both are positioned near what looks like a remote control, suggesting a cozy indoor setting.
mlx-community/Molmo-7B-D-0924-8bit	Two cats are sleeping on a pink blanket on a red couch. One cat is thin with black stripes, while the other is thicker with brown and black stripes. Both cats are curled up with their tails tucked in. Two remote controls are visible on the couch behind them.
mlx-community/Molmo-7B-D-0924-bf16	Two cats are sleeping on a pink blanket on a red couch. One cat is thin with black stripes, while the other is thicker with brown and black stripes. Both cats are curled up with their paws tucked in. There are two remote controls visible on the couch.
mlx-community/Phi-3.5-vision-instruct-bf16	Two cats are sleeping on a pink couch with remote controls beside them.
mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit	The image shows two cats lying on a pink blanket. One cat is on the left side, while the other is on the right side. There are two remote controls placed on the blanket, one on the left side and the other on the right side.
mlx-community/Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct-bf16	!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mlx-community/Qwen3-VL-2B-Thinking-bf16	!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mlx-community/Qwen3.5-27B-4bit	Two tabby cats are lounging on a bright pink couch, each with a remote control nearby. The cat on the left is stretched out on its back, paws relaxed, while the one on the right lies curled up, head resting near its front paws. Both appear to be napping or resting comfortably.
mlx-community/Qwen3.5-27B-mxfp8	Two tabby cats are sleeping on a bright pink couch. One cat is stretched out on its side, while the other is curled up nearby. Two remote controls lie on the couch between them.
mlx-community/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-4bit	Two tabby cats are sprawled out on a bright pink couch, sleeping peacefully. One cat is curled near the left armrest with a remote beside it, while the other lies stretched across the center, next to another remote.
mlx-community/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-6bit	Two tabby cats are sprawled out asleep on a bright pink couch, nestled between two remote controls. The cat on the left is stretched out with its tail curled, while the one on the right is curled up facing downward.
mlx-community/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-bf16	Two tabby cats are sprawled out asleep on a bright pink couch, nestled between two remote controls — one white and one gray. The cat on the left is curled with its tail tucked, while the one on the right lies stretched out.
mlx-community/Qwen3.5-9B-MLX-4bit	This image shows two tabby cats sleeping on a bright pink blanket or couch cover. The cat on the left is a smaller kitten, lying on its side with its head resting near a white remote control. The cat on the right is larger and also sleeping, positioned next to another remote control.
mlx-community/Qwen3.6-27B-mxfp8	Two tabby cats are sleeping peacefully on a bright pink couch. One cat lies on its side near a white remote control, while the other stretches out nearby, also next to a remote.
mlx-community/SmolVLM-Instruct-bf16	Two cats are sleeping on a pink blanket on a couch.
mlx-community/SmolVLM2-2.2B-Instruct-mlx	In the image, a cat is comfortably nestled on a red couch, its body relaxed and at ease. The cat's fur is a mix of black and white, with the black spots standing out against the vibrant red of the couch.
mlx-community/X-Reasoner-7B-8bit	The image shows two tabby cats lying on a pink couch. Both cats are stretched out, appearing relaxed. Between them are two remote controls.
mlx-community/gemma-3-27b-it-qat-4bit	Here's a brief description of the image: The image shows two tabby cats lying side-by-side on a bright pink surface, likely a couch cushion or blanket. Both cats are relaxed and appear to be sleeping. Each cat has a remote control resting on its body.
mlx-community/gemma-3-27b-it-qat-8bit	Here's a brief description of the image: The image shows two tabby kittens lying on their backs on a bright pink surface. Both kittens are relaxed and appear to be sleeping. Each kitten has a remote control resting on its belly.
mlx-community/gemma-3n-E2B-4bit	have this image. have this image. have this image. ...repeats until token cap.
mlx-community/gemma-3n-E4B-it-bf16	Two tabby cats are peacefully napping on a bright pink couch. The cat on the left is lying on its back with its paws curled up, its tail curled around its body. It has a green collar. The cat on the right is also lying on its back. Between the two cats are two television remotes.
mlx-community/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it-4bit	Two tabby cats are lying on a pink blanket on a red couch, with a remote control next to each cat.
mlx-community/gemma-4-31b-bf16	Both cats are sleeping on a pink blanket. The difference between these images is that one cat is on the left side of the blanket and the other is on the right side.
mlx-community/gemma-4-31b-it-4bit	Two tabby cats are sleeping on a bright pink blanket on a red couch, with two remote controls lying next to them.
mlx-community/llava-v1.6-mistral-7b-8bit	The image shows two cats lying on a pink blanket. The cat on the left is a kitten with a black and white striped tail. The cat on the right is a tabby cat with a black and brown striped tail. Both cats are sleeping.
mlx-community/nanoLLaVA-1.5-4bit	The image shows a close-up view of two cats lying down on a pink fabric surface. Both cats have striped coats, and they are positioned on a couch. The cats are facing the camera, and their eyes are open, indicating alertness. There are no texts or other objects in the image.
mlx-community/paligemma2-10b-ft-docci-448-6bit	A top-down view of two cats laying on a pink blanket. The cat on the left is a gray tabby cat with black stripes and is laying on its side. The cat on the right is a brown tabby cat with black stripes and is laying on its side. There is a gray remote control on the left side and a gray remote control on the right side.
mlx-community/paligemma2-10b-ft-docci-448-bf16	A top-down view of two cats laying on a pink blanket. The cat on the left is a gray and black tabby cat; the cat on the right is a brown tabby cat with black stripes. There is a gray remote control on the left side of the image and a gray remote control on the right side.
mlx-community/paligemma2-3b-ft-docci-448-bf16	A top-down view of two cats sleeping on a pink blanket. The cat on the left is a gray and black tabby cat, and it is lying on its side with its head facing the right. The cat on the right is brown and black. There are two white and blue remote controls between the cats.
mlx-community/paligemma2-3b-pt-896-4bit	Cat.
mlx-community/pixtral-12b-8bit	In the tranquil setting of this image, two feline companions, one adult and one kitten, are enjoying a peaceful slumber on a vibrant red couch... This image captures a moment of quiet companionship between
mlx-community/pixtral-12b-bf16	In the tranquil setting of this image, two feline companions, one a tabby and the other a Bengal, are enjoying a peaceful slumber on a vibrant red couch... creating a snapshot
qnguyen3/nanoLLaVA	This image features two cats lying on a couch. One cat is a light brown and the other is a dark brown. They both have green eyes and a black nose.

[linear-code]

BLA-251