Can the Apple M2 Pro (32GB) run Phi-4 14B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M2 Pro (32GB) can run Phi-4 14B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 17.9 GB of the 21.4 GB available, at roughly 8 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Phi-4 14B:
ollama run phi4:14bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 11.2 GB here). You have room for Q8_0, which is near-lossless: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M2 Pro (32GB)? Run Phi-4 14B in the cloud.
Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.
Memory needed by quantization
At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 21.4 GB the Apple M2 Pro (32GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 21.4 GB of the 32 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 31.7 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 17.9 GB | Fits | ~8 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 14.3 GB | Fits | ~10 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 12.7 GB | Fits | ~11 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 11.2 GB | Fits | ~13 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 9.5 GB | Fits | ~17 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 7.8 GB | Fits | ~22 tok/s |
GPUs that run Phi-4 14B comfortably
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M2 Pro (32GB) run Phi-4 14B?
Yes. The Apple M2 Pro (32GB) can run Phi-4 14B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 17.9 GB of the 21.4 GB available, at roughly 8 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Phi-4 14B need?
About 11.2 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 31.7 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Phi-4 14B on the Apple M2 Pro (32GB)?
Roughly 8 tokens per second at Q8_0, estimated from the Apple M2 Pro (32GB)'s 200 GB/s memory bandwidth.