MacBook Pro M3 Pro 36GBBudget pick
36 GB Unified (+4)150 GB/s (+30)
C
Raises estimated decode speed by about 37%.22.4 tok/s decode
Raises estimated decode speed by about 37%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct needs ~10.2 GB VRAM. Mac mini M4 32GB has 23.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~18 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
16.3 tok/s
TTFT
11886 ms
Safe context
236K
Memory
10.2 GB / 23.0 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 | 17.7 tok/s | 5964 ms | 236K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 17.7 tok/s | 10935 ms | 236K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 17.7 tok/s | 15905 ms | 236K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 17.7 tok/s | 12923 ms | 236K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 17.7 tok/s | 19881 ms | 236K |
How Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac mini M4 32GB (23.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.1 GB | Low | C45 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.9 GB | Low | C45 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on your machine.
Run
lms load hf-maziyarpanahi--meta-llama-3-1-8b-instruct-gguf && lms server startUpgrade options
Raises estimated decode speed by about 37%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 254%.
~$2,499 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 483%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$3,999 MSRP
Yes, Mac mini M4 32GB can run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 17.7 tok/s.
Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B parameters) requires approximately 10.2 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On Mac mini M4 32GB, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct achieves approximately 17.7 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 10935ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct on Mac mini M4 32GB receives a C grade with 17.7 tok/s and 236K context.
On Mac mini M4 32GB, Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct can safely use up to 236K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, 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/hf-maziyarpanahi--meta-llama-3-1-8b-instruct-gguf-on-m4-mini-32gb" 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 |
| C46 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.9 GB | Medium | C46 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.8 GB | High | C46 |
Q6_K | 6 | 6.6 GB | High | C47 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 8.6 GB | Very High | C48 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 16.4 GB | Maximum | C50 |
Not always. Mac mini M4 32GB 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.