EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 needs ~9.2 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M3 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~14 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
14.3 tok/s
TTFT
13546 ms
Safe context
158K
Memory
9.2 GB / 17.3 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 | 14.3 tok/s | 7389 ms | 158K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 14.3 tok/s | 13546 ms | 158K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 14.3 tok/s | 19704 ms | 158K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 14.3 tok/s | 16009 ms | 158K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 14.3 tok/s | 24630 ms | 158K |
How EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 (7.800000190734863B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M3 24GB (17.3 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.0 GB | Low | C46 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.8 GB | Low | C47 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 on your machine.
Run
lms load hf-mradermacher--exaone-3-5-7-8b-instruct-i1-gguf && lms server startUpgrade options
Raises estimated decode speed by about 241%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 106%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 314%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$2,499 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Air M3 24GB can run EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 14.3 tok/s.
EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 (7.800000190734863B parameters) requires approximately 9.2 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M3 24GB, EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 achieves approximately 14.3 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 13546ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 on MacBook Air M3 24GB receives a C grade with 14.3 tok/s and 158K context.
On MacBook Air M3 24GB, EXAONE 3.5 7.8B Instruct i1 can safely use up to 158K 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-mradermacher--exaone-3-5-7-8b-instruct-i1-gguf-on-m3-air-24gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
4.4 GB |
| Medium |
| C47 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.8 GB | Medium | C48 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.6 GB | High | C48 |
Q6_K | 6 | 6.4 GB | High | C49 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 8.3 GB | Very High | C51 |
F16 | 16 | 16.0 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Not always. MacBook Air M3 24GB 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.