| quant | needs | speed |
|---|---|---|
| ~ Q8_0 | 10.0 GB | ~1–2 tok/s (slow) |
| ✓ Q6_K | 8.0 GB | ~10–17 tok/s (usable) |
| ✓ Q4_K_M | 6.2 GB | ~14–25 tok/s (usable) |
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 →
These share Yi-Coder 9B's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M3 Pro · 18GB too:
| model | shares | verdict here |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen2.5-Coder | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs (tight) |
| StarCoder2 | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs (tight) |
| Yi 1.5 | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs comfortably |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B | 4kv/128hd | ❌ Won't fit |
| SmolLM3 3B | 4kv/128hd | ✅ Runs comfortably |
Check any combo yourself: open the checker →