Dolphin 2.9 8B needs ~21.6 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB has 92.2 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~90 tok/s.
Operating mode
Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
Select quantization to explore
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
96.9 tok/s
TTFT
1997 ms
Safe context
33K
Memory
21.6 GB / 92.2 GB
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
Shared-memory contention still exists
The OS, browser, and inference runtime all compete for the same physical memory pool, so real-world headroom is less forgiving than raw capacity suggests.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | C | Runs well | 96.9 tok/s | 1089 ms | 33K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 90.2 tok/s | 2147 ms | 33K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 96.9 tok/s | 2905 ms | 33K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 96.9 tok/s | 2361 ms | 33K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 96.9 tok/s | 3632 ms | 33K |
How Dolphin 2.9 8B (8B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB (92.2 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.1 GB | Low | D40 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.9 GB | Low | D40 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Dolphin 2.9 8B on your machine.
Run
ollama run dolphin-llama3Yes, Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB can run Dolphin 2.9 8B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 90.2 tok/s.
Dolphin 2.9 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 21.6 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Dolphin 2.9 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB, Dolphin 2.9 8B achieves approximately 90.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2147ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Dolphin 2.9 8B on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB receives a C grade with 90.2 tok/s and 33K context.
On Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB, Dolphin 2.9 8B can safely use up to 33K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 33K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/dolphin-2.9-8b-on-m1-ultra-128gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
4.5 GB |
| Medium |
| D40 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.9 GB | Medium | D40 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.8 GB | High | D40 |
Q6_K | 6 | 6.6 GB | High | D40 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 8.6 GB | Very High | C40 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 16.4 GB | Maximum | C41 |
Not always. Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB can often fit larger models thanks to unified memory, but a discrete GPU with dedicated high-bandwidth VRAM may still decode faster once the model fits. For this combination, the important distinction is capacity versus sustained throughput.