| quant | needs | speed |
|---|---|---|
| ✓ Q8_0 | 17.2 GB | ~8–14 tok/s (usable) |
| ✓ Q5_K_M | 11.7 GB | ~12–20 tok/s (usable) |
| ✓ Q4_K_M | 10.1 GB | ~14–25 tok/s (usable) |
| ✓ Q3_K_M | 8.4 GB | ~17–30 tok/s (fast) |
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 · DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen2.5 · Mixtral 8x7B · Gemma 3
Best models for a Apple M4 Pro · 48GB →
These share StarCoder2's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M4 Pro · 48GB too:
| model | shares | verdict here |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen2.5-Coder | 2kv/128hd4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs comfortably |
| Yi 1.5 | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs comfortably |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs (tight) |
| SmolLM3 3B | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs comfortably |
| Yi-Coder 9B | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs comfortably |
Check any combo yourself: open the checker →