LLaVA on Apple M3 Pro · 18GB

✅ Runs (tight) — LLaVA 7B @ Q4_K_M
LLaVA 7B at Q4_K_M needs ~8.5 GB (weights 4.0 GB + KV 4.0 GB + overhead 512 MB @ 8K ctx) of your 9.1 GB usable (of 18.0 GB unified memory) — fits, but little headroom — close other apps or trim context. Expect ~10–16 tok/s (usable).
context @ Q4_K_M: comfortable to 4K
quantneedsspeed
~ Q8_011.5 GB~0.9–1 tok/s (slow)
~ Q5_K_M9.2 GB~1–2 tok/s (slow)
✓ Q4_K_M8.5 GB~10–16 tok/s (usable)
$runlocal install llava:7b
runlocal verdict card
download card share on x share on reddit drop it in your model-drop post
LLaVA: Runs (tight)
for your own README — links back here

Same model, other machines: Apple M1 · Apple M1 Pro · Apple M2 · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M4 Pro · Apple M3 Max

Also runs on a Apple M3 Pro: DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen2.5 · Mistral 7B · Qwen3 · Llama 3.1

Best models for a Apple M3 Pro · 18GB →

Architecturally similar

These share LLaVA's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M3 Pro · 18GB too:

modelsharesverdict here
Code Llama 32kv/128hd40kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)
OLMo 2 7B 32kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)

Check any combo yourself: open the checker →