Raises estimated decode speed by about 245%.
〜$15,000 MSRP
starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 needs ~39.5 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB has 184.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~61 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
60.9 tok/s
TTFT
3181 ms
Safe context
1.3M
Memory
39.5 GB / 184.3 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 | C | Runs well | 60.9 tok/s | 1735 ms | 1.3M |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 60.9 tok/s | 3181 ms | 1.3M |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 60.9 tok/s | 4627 ms | 1.3M |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 60.9 tok/s | 3759 ms | 1.3M |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 60.9 tok/s | 5783 ms | 1.3M |
How starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 (15B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB (184.3 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 5.9 GB | Low | D37 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 7.4 GB | Low | D37 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 8.4 GB | Medium | D37 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 9.2 GB | Medium | D37 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 10.8 GB | High | D37 |
Q6_K | 6 | 12.3 GB | High | D37 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 16.1 GB | Very High | D37 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 30.7 GB | Maximum | D38 |
Copy-paste commands to run starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 on your machine.
Run
lms load hf-lmstudio-community--starcoder2-15b-instruct-v0-1-gguf && lms server startアップグレードオプション
Raises estimated decode speed by about 245%.
〜$15,000 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 245%.
〜$35,000 MSRP
Yes, Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB can run starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 60.9 tok/s.
starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 (15B parameters) requires approximately 39.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB, starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 achieves approximately 60.9 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 3181ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB receives a C grade with 60.9 tok/s and 1.3M context.
On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB, starcoder2 15b instruct v0.1 can safely use up to 1.3M tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Not always. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB 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/hf-lmstudio-community--starcoder2-15b-instruct-v0-1-gguf-on-m3-ultra-256gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview: