MacBook Pro M3 Pro 36GBBudget pick
36 GB Unified (+4)150 GB/s (+30)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 38%.24.1 tok/s decode
Raises estimated decode speed by about 38%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Llama 3.1 8B needs ~11.2 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
17.5 tok/s
TTFT
11056 ms
Safe context
113K
Memory
11.2 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 | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 6031 ms | 113K |
| Coding | B | Runs well | 17.7 tok/s | 10935 ms | 113K |
| Agentic Coding | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 16082 ms | 113K |
| Reasoning | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 13067 ms | 113K |
| RAG | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 20103 ms | 113K |
How Llama 3.1 8B (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 | B66 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.9 GB | Low | B66 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Llama 3.1 8B on your machine.
Run
ollama run llama3.1Upgrade options
Raises estimated decode speed by about 38%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 254%.
~$2,499 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 484%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$3,999 MSRP
Yes, Mac mini M4 32GB can run Llama 3.1 8B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 17.7 tok/s.
Llama 3.1 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 11.2 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Llama 3.1 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On Mac mini M4 32GB, Llama 3.1 8B 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, Llama 3.1 8B on Mac mini M4 32GB receives a B grade with 17.7 tok/s and 113K context.
On Mac mini M4 32GB, Llama 3.1 8B can safely use up to 113K 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/llama-3.1-8b-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 |
| B66 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.9 GB | Medium | B67 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.8 GB | High | B67 |
Q6_K | 6 | 6.6 GB | High | B68 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 8.6 GB | Very High | B69 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 16.4 GB | Maximum | A71 |
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.