Can LLaVA 1.6 13B run on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB?

Q: Is unified memory on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB as fast as VRAM for LLaVA 1.6 13B?

Not always. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB 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.

YES — Runs Great

A70Great

Estimated from fit model

LLaVA 1.6 13B needs ~48.7 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB has 184.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~70 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: HighStack: StandardBottleneck: Balanced

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

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.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 48.7 GB, 70.2 tok/s, Runs well

48.7 GB required184.3 GB available

26% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

70.2 tok/s

TTFT

2757 ms

Safe context

Memory

48.7 GB / 184.3 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights7.9 GB

KV Cache12.2 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom27.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsLLaVA 1.6 13B on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>What is local AI inference?
Local AI inference means running an AI language model directly on your own hardware — your laptop, desktop, or server — instead of sending requests to a remote cloud API.

When you run inference locally the model weights are loaded into your GPU or unified memory. Each token you generate requires reading those weights from memory, so memory bandwidth is the main bottleneck for decode speed.

Key benefits of running locally:
  - Full privacy: your prompts never leave your machine
  - No per-token cost or rate limits
  - Works offline once the model is downloaded
  - Latency depends only on your hardware
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>How much VRAM do I need?
It depends on the model size and quantization level. A rough rule of thumb:

  Model size     Q4 (4-bit)    Q8 (8-bit)    FP16
  7B params      ~4.3 GB       ~7.5 GB       ~14 GB
  13B params     ~7.9 GB       ~13.9 GB      ~26 GB
  70B params     ~42.7 GB      ~74.9 GB      ~140 GB

Most people use 4-bit quantization (Q4_K_M) which gives 90-95% of full quality at a fraction of the memory. A 24 GB GPU can comfortably run most 7B-13B models.
Estimated: 70.2 tok/s decode · 2.8s TTFT (warm) · 176 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

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.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Runs well	70.2 tok/s	1504 ms	4K
Coding	A	Runs well	70.2 tok/s	2757 ms	4K
Agentic Coding	A	Runs well	70.2 tok/s	4010 ms	4K
Reasoning	A	Runs well	70.2 tok/s	3258 ms	4K
RAG	A	Runs well	70.2 tok/s	5012 ms	4K

Quantization options

How LLaVA 1.6 13B (13B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB (184.3 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	5.1 GB	Low	B60
Q3_K_S	3	6.4 GB	Low	B60
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run LLaVA 1.6 13B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
  --hf-repo "liuhaotian/llava-v1.6-mistral-7b" \
  --hf-file "llava-v1.6-mistral-7b-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
  -c 4096 -ngl 99

Your hardware

More models your Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode	Capabilities
Devstral 2 123B Instruct	123B	S	8.1 tok/s
Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct	30.5B	S

Frequently asked questions

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB run LLaVA 1.6 13B?

Yes, Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB can run LLaVA 1.6 13B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 70.2 tok/s.

How much VRAM does LLaVA 1.6 13B need?

LLaVA 1.6 13B (13B parameters) requires approximately 48.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for LLaVA 1.6 13B?

The recommended quantization for LLaVA 1.6 13B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will LLaVA 1.6 13B run at on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB, LLaVA 1.6 13B achieves approximately 70.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2757ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB run LLaVA 1.6 13B for coding?

For coding workloads, LLaVA 1.6 13B on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB receives a A grade with 70.2 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can LLaVA 1.6 13B use on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB, LLaVA 1.6 13B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 4K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB as fast as VRAM for LLaVA 1.6 13B?

See all results for Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB See all hardware for LLaVA 1.6 13B

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