MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GBBudget pick
18 GB Unified (+2)150 GB/s (+82)
C
Raises estimated decode speed by about 167%.22.4 tok/s decode
Raises estimated decode speed by about 167%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B needs ~8.4 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M1 16GB has 11.5 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~8 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
8.4 tok/s
TTFT
23156 ms
Safe context
68K
Memory
8.4 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 | C | Runs well | 8.4 tok/s | 12631 ms | 68K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 8.4 tok/s | 23156 ms | 68K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 8.4 tok/s | 33682 ms | 68K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 8.4 tok/s | 27366 ms | 68K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 8.4 tok/s | 42102 ms | 68K |
How Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B (8B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M1 16GB (11.5 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.1 GB | Low | C50 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.9 GB | Low | C51 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B on your machine.
Run
lms load hf-nousresearch--hermes-3-llama-3-1-8b-gguf && lms server startUpgrade options
Raises estimated decode speed by about 167%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 371%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Air M1 16GB can run Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 8.4 tok/s.
Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 8.4 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M1 16GB, Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B achieves approximately 8.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 23156ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B on MacBook Air M1 16GB receives a C grade with 8.4 tok/s and 68K context.
On MacBook Air M1 16GB, Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B can safely use up to 68K 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-nousresearch--hermes-3-llama-3-1-8b-gguf-on-m1-16gb" 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 |
| C52 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.9 GB | Medium | C52 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.8 GB | High | C52 |
Q6_KBest for your GPU | 6 | 6.6 GB | High | C52 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 8.6 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 16.4 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Not always. MacBook Air M1 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.