~$1,999 MSRP
Granite 3.1 8B needs ~9.5 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB has 11.5 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~36 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
Tight fit
Decode
35.5 tok/s
TTFT
5459 ms
Safe context
33K
Memory
9.5 GB / 11.5 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 | B | Runs well | 35.5 tok/s | 2977 ms | 33K |
| Coding | B | Tight fit | 35.5 tok/s | 5459 ms | 33K |
| Agentic Coding | B | Runs with offload | 35.5 tok/s | 7940 ms | 33K |
| Reasoning | B | Tight fit | 35.5 tok/s | 6451 ms | 33K |
| RAG | B | Runs with offload | 35.5 tok/s | 9925 ms | 33K |
How Granite 3.1 8B (8B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB (11.5 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.1 GB | Low | C54 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.9 GB | Low | B56 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Granite 3.1 8B on your machine.
Run
ollama run granite3.1-denseUpgrade options
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 50%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 66%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB can run Granite 3.1 8B with a B grade (Tight fit). Expected decode speed: 35.5 tok/s.
Granite 3.1 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 9.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Granite 3.1 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB, Granite 3.1 8B achieves approximately 35.5 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 5459ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Granite 3.1 8B on MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB receives a B grade with 35.5 tok/s and 33K context.
On MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB, Granite 3.1 8B can safely use up to 33K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 128K, 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/granite-3.1-8b-on-m2-pro-16gb" 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 |
| B56 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.9 GB | Medium | B57 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.8 GB | High | B57 |
Q6_KBest for your GPU | 6 | 6.6 GB | High | B57 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 8.6 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 16.4 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Not always. MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB 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.