DeepSeek-R1 (distill) on Apple M4 Pro · 48GB

✅ Runs (tight) — DeepSeek-R1 (distill) 70B (Llama) @ Q2_K
DeepSeek-R1 (distill) 70B (Llama) at Q2_K needs ~28.3 GB (weights 24.6 GB + KV 2.5 GB + overhead 1.2 GB @ 8K ctx) of your 33.0 GB usable (of 48.0 GB unified memory) — fits, but little headroom — close other apps or trim context. Expect ~5–8 tok/s (slow).
context @ Q2_K: runs to 32K · won't fit past that on this rig
quantneedsspeed
✗ Q8_075.8 GB—
✗ Q5_K_M51.3 GB—
✗ Q4_K_M44.1 GB—
✓ Q2_K28.3 GB~5–8 tok/s (slow)
$runlocal install deepseek-r1:70b
runlocal verdict card
download card share on x share on reddit drop it in your model-drop post
DeepSeek-R1 (distill): Runs (tight)
for your own README — links back here

Same model, other machines: Apple M1 · Apple M1 Pro · Apple M2 · Apple M3 Pro · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M3 Max

Also runs on a Apple M4 Pro: Qwen3 · Qwen2.5 · Mixtral 8x7B · Gemma 3 · Mistral Small 3

Best models for a Apple M4 Pro · 48GB →

Architecturally similar

These share DeepSeek-R1 (distill)'s KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M4 Pro · 48GB too:

modelsharesverdict here
Llama 3.1 8kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)
Qwen2.5-Coder 2kv/128hd4kv/128hd8kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably
Llama 3.2 8kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably
Llama 3.3 8kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)
Mistral 7B 8kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably
Mistral Nemo 8kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably
Codestral 8kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably
Llama 3.2 Vision 8kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably

…and 11 more — see the DeepSeek-R1 (distill) page.

Check any combo yourself: open the checker →