Nous Dolphin 13B needs ~25.4 GB but MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB only has 17.3 GB. Try a smaller quantization or lighter model.
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
8.1 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
12.1 tok/s
TTFT
16019 ms
Safe context
5K
Memory
25.4 GB / 17.3 GB
Offload
30%
Usable shared or unified memory is the main blocker for this model.
Not enough usable memory
The model needs 25.4 GB, but this setup only exposes 17.3 GB of usable shared or unified memory.
Move to a larger memory pool
A larger unified-memory SKU or a discrete high-bandwidth GPU is the cleanest way to make this model practical.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | B | Very compromised (needs ~1 GB host RAM) | 16.9 tok/s | 6249 ms | 5K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 12.1 tok/s | 16019 ms | 5K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 9.1 tok/s | 31043 ms | 5K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 12.1 tok/s | 18932 ms | 5K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 9.1 tok/s | 38803 ms | 5K |
How Nous Dolphin 13B (13B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB (17.3 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 5.1 GB | Low | B69 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 6.4 GB | Low | B70 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 7.3 GB | Medium | A71 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 7.9 GB | Medium | A71 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 9.4 GB | High | A72 |
Q6_KBest for your GPU | 6 | 10.7 GB | High | A71 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 13.9 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 26.7 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Upgrade options
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$799 MSRP
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$1,099 MSRP
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,099 MSRP
RTX 5090 32GBBiggest leapMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$1,999 MSRP
No, Nous Dolphin 13B requires more memory than MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB provides.
Nous Dolphin 13B (13B parameters) requires approximately 25.4 GB of memory with Q5_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Nous Dolphin 13B is Q5_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB, Nous Dolphin 13B achieves approximately 12.1 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 16019ms using Q5_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Nous Dolphin 13B on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB receives a F grade with 12.1 tok/s and 5K context.
On MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB, Nous Dolphin 13B can safely use up to 5K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 16K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Move to a larger memory pool. A larger unified-memory SKU or a discrete high-bandwidth GPU is the cleanest way to make this model practical.
Not always. MacBook Pro M4 Pro 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.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/nous-dolphin-13b-on-m4-pro-24gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
