Can the Apple M1 (16GB) run Qwen3 30B-A3B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
No. Even at Q4_K_M, Qwen3 30B-A3B needs about 19.9 GB, but the Apple M1 (16GB) has 10.7 GB usable. You could offload some layers to system RAM, but it will be very slow.
Run it on a rented GPU
On a cloud GPU with enough memory, the same command you'd use locally works:
ollama run qwen3:30bAt Q4_K_M it needs about 19.9 GB, so pick a GPU with at least 24 GB.
New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M1 (16GB)
Run it in the cloud
Too big for the Apple M1 (16GB)? Run Qwen3 30B-A3B on a rented GPU instead.
Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time. Not sure whether to rent or buy? Compare the cost.
Memory needed by quantization
At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 10.7 GB the Apple M1 (16GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 10.7 GB of the 16 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 62.4 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 33.8 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 26.4 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 23.1 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 19.9 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 16.3 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 12.8 GB | Too big | — |
Measured speed from real Apple M1 (16GB) owners
Tokens per second that people measured on their own Apple M1 (16GB), next to our estimate.
No one has measured Qwen3 30B-A3B on the Apple M1 (16GB) yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.
Have an Apple M1 (16GB)? Add your real speed
One command times Qwen3 30B-A3B in your own Ollama, shows you exactly what it would send, and asks before sending anything. No sign-up, no personal data.
macOS and Linux
curl -fsSL https://gpufit.dev/bench.sh | sh -s -- qwen3:30bWindows (PowerShell)
$env:GPUFIT_MODEL="qwen3:30b"; irm https://gpufit.dev/bench.ps1 | iexGPUs that run Qwen3 30B-A3B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M1 (16GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M1 (16GB) run Qwen3 30B-A3B?
No. Even at Q4_K_M, Qwen3 30B-A3B needs about 19.9 GB, but the Apple M1 (16GB) has 10.7 GB usable. You could offload some layers to system RAM, but it will be very slow.
How much VRAM does Qwen3 30B-A3B need?
About 19.9 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 62.4 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Qwen3 30B-A3B on the Apple M1 (16GB)?
It does not fit in the Apple M1 (16GB)'s memory, so most layers would run from system RAM and generation would be very slow.