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Can the Apple M4 (16GB) run Llama 3.1 8B?

Apple M4 (16GB) × Llama 3.1 8B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at Q8_010.2 GB of 10.7 GB
Weights 8.5 GBKV cache 1.1 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantQ8_0Near-lossless
Memory10.2 GBof 10.7 GB usable
Speed~8tokens per second
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Yes. The Apple M4 (16GB) can run Llama 3.1 8B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 10.2 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 8 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Llama 3.1 8B:

ollama run llama3.1:8b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 6.5 GB here). You have room for Q8_0, which is near-lossless: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M4 (16GB)

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M4 (16GB)? Run Llama 3.1 8B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Rent a GPU on RunPodRent a GPU on Vast.ai

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 10.7 GB the Apple M4 (16GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 10.7 GB of the 16 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality17.7 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless10.2 GBFits~8 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent8.3 GBFits~11 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good7.4 GBFits~13 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular6.5 GBFits~15 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded5.6 GBFits~18 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded4.7 GBFits~24 tok/s

GPUs that run Llama 3.1 8B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M4 (16GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M4 (16GB) run Llama 3.1 8B?

Yes. The Apple M4 (16GB) can run Llama 3.1 8B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 10.2 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 8 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Llama 3.1 8B need?

About 6.5 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 17.7 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Llama 3.1 8B on the Apple M4 (16GB)?

Roughly 8 tokens per second at Q8_0, estimated from the Apple M4 (16GB)'s 120 GB/s memory bandwidth.