Can the Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 11.5 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 43 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B:
ollama run phi3.5:3.8bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 6.1 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M4 Max (128GB)? Run Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B 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 96 GB the Apple M4 Max (128GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 96 GB of the 128 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 11.5 GB | Fits | ~43 tok/s | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 7.9 GB | Fits | ~81 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 7 GB | Fits | ~105 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 6.5 GB | Fits | ~121 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 6.1 GB | Fits | ~141 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 5.7 GB | Fits | ~175 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 5.3 GB | Fits | ~229 tok/s |
GPUs that run Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B?
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 11.5 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 43 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B need?
About 6.1 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 11.5 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Phi-3.5 Mini 3.8B on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)?
Roughly 43 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M4 Max (128GB)'s 546 GB/s memory bandwidth.