Qwen 3 30B A3B needs ~23.5 GB but Mac mini M2 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
6.2 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
8.4 tok/s
TTFT
23098 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
23.5 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 23.5 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 | F | Too heavy | 8.7 tok/s | 12136 ms | 4K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 8.4 tok/s | 23098 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 7.8 tok/s | 36044 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 8.4 tok/s | 27298 ms | 4K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 7.8 tok/s | 45055 ms | 4K |
How Qwen 3 30B A3B (30.5B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac mini M2 24GB (17.3 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_KBest for your GPU | 2 | 11.9 GB | Low | S91 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 14.9 GB | Low | F0 |
Upgrade options
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.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$1,599 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.
~$3,999 MSRP
No, Qwen 3 30B A3B requires more memory than Mac mini M2 24GB provides.
Qwen 3 30B A3B (30.5B parameters) requires approximately 23.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Qwen 3 30B A3B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On Mac mini M2 24GB, Qwen 3 30B A3B achieves approximately 8.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 23098ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Qwen 3 30B A3B on Mac mini M2 24GB receives a F grade with 8.4 tok/s and 4K context.
On Mac mini M2 24GB, Qwen 3 30B A3B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, 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-3-30b-a3b-on-m2-24gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
| 4 |
17.1 GB |
| Medium |
| F0 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 18.6 GB | Medium | F0 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 22.0 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 25.0 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 32.6 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 62.5 GB | Maximum | F0 |
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. Mac mini M2 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.
