Can the Apple M4 (16GB) run Phi-4 14B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Only just. Phi-4 14B fits on the Apple M4 (16GB) at Q3_K_M, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 10 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.
Run it with Ollama
Ollama's default phi4:14b download is Q4_K_M, which needs about 11.2 GB, more than the 10.7 GB available. Download the Q3_K_M GGUF instead (LM Studio lists quants per model), or try a smaller context length.
Run it in the cloud
Want full quality? Run Phi-4 14B on a bigger rented GPU.
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 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.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 31.7 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 17.9 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 14.3 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 12.7 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 11.2 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 9.5 GB | Fits | ~10 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 7.8 GB | Fits | ~13 tok/s |
GPUs that run Phi-4 14B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 (16GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M4 (16GB) run Phi-4 14B?
Only just. Phi-4 14B fits on the Apple M4 (16GB) at Q3_K_M, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 10 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.
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 M4 (16GB)?
Roughly 10 tokens per second at Q3_K_M, estimated from the Apple M4 (16GB)'s 120 GB/s memory bandwidth.