Phi-3.5-mini on Apple M2 · 16GB

✅ Runs (tight) — Phi-3.5-mini 3.8B @ Q8_0
Phi-3.5-mini 3.8B at Q8_0 needs ~7.3 GB (weights 3.8 GB + KV 3.0 GB + overhead 512 MB @ 8K ctx) of your 8.2 GB usable (of 16.0 GB unified memory) — fits, but little headroom — close other apps or trim context. Expect ~8–14 tok/s (usable).
context @ Q8_0: comfortable to 4K · runs to 16K · won't fit past that on this rig
quantneedsspeed
Q8_07.3 GB~8–14 tok/s (usable)
Q5_K_M6.0 GB~10–17 tok/s (usable)
Q4_K_M5.7 GB~11–19 tok/s (usable)
$runlocal install phi3.5:3.8b
runlocal verdict card
download card share on x share on reddit drop it in your model-drop post
Phi-3.5-mini: Runs (tight)
for your own README — links back here

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

Also runs on a Apple M2: DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen3 · Llama 3.1 · Qwen2.5 · Gemma 3

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