Can CogVLM2 19B run on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB?

YES — With Offload

A83Great

Estimated — low-sample bucket· few comparable runs

CogVLM2 19B needs ~17.5 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~24 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: LowStack: 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) — 17.5 GB, 23.6 tok/s, Runs with offload (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM)

17.5 GB required17.3 GB available

101% VRAM needed

0.2 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Runs with offload (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM)

Decode

23.6 tok/s

TTFT

8212 ms

Safe context

Memory

17.5 GB / 17.3 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights11.6 GB

KV Cache2.4 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom2.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsCogVLM2 19B on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB
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: 23.6 tok/s decode · 8.2s TTFT (warm) · 59 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Very little memory headroom

You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.

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

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	A	Tight fit	24.4 tok/s	4333 ms	8K
Coding	A	Runs with offload (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM)	23.6 tok/s	8212 ms	8K
Agentic Coding	A	Very compromised (needs ~1.6 GB host RAM)	19.5 tok/s	14459 ms	8K
Reasoning	A	Runs with offload (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM)	23.6 tok/s	9705 ms	8K
RAG	A	Very compromised (needs ~1.6 GB host RAM)	19.5 tok/s	18073 ms	8K

Inference speed

CogVLM2 19B inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for CogVLM2 19B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~105 tok/s. Speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so cards that fit the whole model in VRAM run far faster than ones that offload to system RAM.

GPU / Mac	Memory	Quant	Speed (tok/s)	Fits?
RTX 5090 32GB	32 GB	Q4_K_M	104.6	Fits
RX 7900 XTX 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	64.1	Fits
RTX 4090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	59.3	Fits
RTX 3090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	54.5	Fits
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	256 GB	Q4_K_M	51.7	Fits
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	43.0	Fits
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	40.8	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	38.7	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	38.7	Fits
RTX 4080 Super 16GB	16 GB	Q4_K_M	33.1	Offloads
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB	48 GB	Q4_K_M	24.4	Fits
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	22.3	Fits
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	20.4	Fits
RTX 4070 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	11.8	Too big
RTX 3060 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	7.9	Too big
RTX 4060 8GB	8 GB	Q4_K_M	2.8	Too big

Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q4_K_M; real tokens/sec varies with prompt length, context, batch size, and runtime build. Prompt processing (prefill) is faster than the decode figures shown here.

Quantization options

How CogVLM2 19B (19B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB (17.3 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	7.4 GB	Low	A84
Q3_K_S	3	9.3 GB	Low	A84
NVFP4	4	10.6 GB	Medium	A84
Q4_K_MBest for your GPU	4	11.6 GB	Medium	A84
Q5_K_M	5	13.7 GB	High	F0
Q6_K	6	15.6 GB	High	F0
Q8_0	8	20.3 GB	Very High	F0
F16	16	38.9 GB	Maximum	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run CogVLM2 19B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
  --hf-repo "THUDM/cogvlm2-llama3-chat-19B" \
  --hf-file "cogvlm2-llama3-chat-19B-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
  -c 4096 -ngl 99

Your hardware

More models your MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode
Magistral Small 2507	24B	A	17.8 tok/s
Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct	24B	A	17.8 tok/s
Devstral Small 1.1	24B	A	17.8 tok/s
GPT-OSS 20B	21B	A	35.1 tok/s
Codestral 2 25.08	22B	A	18.4 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB run CogVLM2 19B?

Yes, MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB can run CogVLM2 19B with a A grade (Runs with offload (needs ~0.2 GB host RAM)). Expected decode speed: 23.6 tok/s.

How much VRAM does CogVLM2 19B need?

CogVLM2 19B (19B parameters) requires approximately 17.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for CogVLM2 19B?

The recommended quantization for CogVLM2 19B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will CogVLM2 19B run at on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB?

On MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB, CogVLM2 19B achieves approximately 23.6 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 8212ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB run CogVLM2 19B for coding?

For coding workloads, CogVLM2 19B on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB receives a A grade with 23.6 tok/s and 8K context.

What context window can CogVLM2 19B use on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB?

On MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB, CogVLM2 19B can safely use up to 8K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 8K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if CogVLM2 19B feels slow on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB?

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit. A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Is unified memory on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB as fast as VRAM for CogVLM2 19B?

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.

See all results for MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB See all hardware for CogVLM2 19B

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