Nous Dolphin 13B needs ~24.7 GB but MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB only has 13.0 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
11.7 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
5.4 tok/s
TTFT
36054 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
24.7 GB / 13.0 GB
Offload
50%
Usable shared or unified memory is the main blocker for this model.
Not enough usable memory
The model needs 24.7 GB, but this setup only exposes 13.0 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 | 7.3 tok/s | 14395 ms | 4K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 5.4 tok/s | 36054 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 5.4 tok/s | 52442 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 5.4 tok/s | 42609 ms | 4K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 5.4 tok/s | 65553 ms | 4K |
How Nous Dolphin 13B (13B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB (13.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 5.1 GB | Low | A72 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 6.4 GB | Low | A73 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 7.3 GB | Medium | A72 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 7.9 GB | Medium | A72 |
Q5_K_MBest for your GPU | 5 | 9.4 GB | High | A72 |
Q6_K | 6 | 10.7 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 13.9 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 26.7 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Opciones de mejora
Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.
Sube la velocidad estimada de decodificación alrededor de un 26%.
~$799 MSRP
Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.
Elimina el offload a memoria del sistema, que suele ser la mayor mejora individual en latencia y throughput.
~$1,099 MSRP
Hace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.
Sube la velocidad estimada de decodificación alrededor de un 26%.
~$1,099 MSRP
RTX 5090 32GBMayor saltoHace que el modelo quepa en el acelerador en lugar de seguir fuera de alcance.
Elimina el offload a memoria del sistema, que suele ser la mayor mejora individual en latencia y throughput.
~$1,999 MSRP
No, Nous Dolphin 13B requires more memory than MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB provides.
Nous Dolphin 13B (13B parameters) requires approximately 24.7 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 M3 Pro 18GB, Nous Dolphin 13B achieves approximately 5.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 36054ms using Q5_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Nous Dolphin 13B on MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB receives a F grade with 5.4 tok/s and 4K context.
On MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GB, Nous Dolphin 13B can safely use up to 4K 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 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.
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