Qwen 3 1.7B needs ~5.6 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB has 13.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~24 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
23.8 tok/s
TTFT
8134 ms
Safe context
33K
Memory
5.6 GB / 13.0 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 | 23.8 tok/s | 4437 ms | 33K |
| Coding | B | Runs well | 23.8 tok/s | 8134 ms | 33K |
| Agentic Coding | B | Runs well | 23.8 tok/s | 11832 ms | 33K |
| Reasoning | B | Runs well | 23.8 tok/s | 9613 ms | 33K |
| RAG | B | Runs well | 23.8 tok/s | 14790 ms | 33K |
How Qwen 3 1.7B (1.7000000476837158B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB (13.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 0.7 GB | Low | B66 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 0.8 GB | Low | B66 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Qwen 3 1.7B on your machine.
Run
ollama run qwen3:1.7bYes, MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB can run Qwen 3 1.7B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 23.8 tok/s.
Qwen 3 1.7B (1.7000000476837158B parameters) requires approximately 5.6 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Qwen 3 1.7B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB, Qwen 3 1.7B achieves approximately 23.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 8134ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Qwen 3 1.7B on MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB receives a B grade with 23.8 tok/s and 33K context.
On MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB, Qwen 3 1.7B can safely use up to 33K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 33K, 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/qwen-3-1.7b-on-m3-pro-18gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
1.0 GB |
| Medium |
| B66 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 1.0 GB | Medium | B66 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 1.2 GB | High | B67 |
Q6_K | 6 | 1.4 GB | High | B67 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 1.8 GB | Very High | B67 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 3.5 GB | Maximum | B69 |
Not always. MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB 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.