Can Phi 3 Medium 14B run on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB?

YES — Runs Great

B59Good

Estimated from fit model

Phi 3 Medium 14B needs ~22.9 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB has 69.1 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~65 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: HighStack: 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) — 22.9 GB, 70.1 tok/s, Runs well

22.9 GB required69.1 GB available

33% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

70.1 tok/s

TTFT

2762 ms

Safe context

128K

Memory

22.9 GB / 69.1 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights8.5 GB

KV Cache3.1 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom10.4 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsPhi 3 Medium 14B on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Solve: If a train travels at 60 mph for 2.5 hours, how far does it go?
Let me work through this step by step.

Given information:
  - Speed = 60 mph (miles per hour)
  - Time  = 2.5 hours

Formula: Distance = Speed x Time

Calculation:
  Distance = 60 mph x 2.5 h
           = 150 miles

The train travels 150 miles.

Double-check: at 60 mph the train covers 60 miles each hour. In half an hour it covers 30 miles. So in 2.5 hours: 60 + 60 + 30 = 150 miles. Confirmed.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>What if the train stops for 20 minutes halfway?
The stop doesn't change the total distance covered while moving, but it affects total trip time.

Breakdown:
  - First half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles
  - Stop: 20 minutes (no distance)
  - Second half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles

Total distance: 150 miles (same)
Total time: 2.5 h + 0.33 h = 2.83 hours
Average speed: 150 / 2.83 = 53 mph

The distance stays the same but average speed drops to 53 mph because of the stop.
Estimated: 70.1 tok/s decode · 2.8s TTFT (warm) · 175 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

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.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Runs well	65.2 tok/s	1619 ms	128K
Coding	B	Runs well	65.2 tok/s	2969 ms	128K
Agentic Coding	B	Runs well	65.2 tok/s	4318 ms	128K
Reasoning	B	Runs well	65.2 tok/s	3508 ms	128K
RAG	B	Runs well	65.2 tok/s	5398 ms	128K

Quantization options

How Phi 3 Medium 14B (14B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB (69.1 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	5.5 GB	Low	C51
Q3_K_S	3	6.9 GB	Low	C51
NVFP4	4	7.8 GB	Medium	C52
Q4_K_M	4	8.5 GB	Medium	C52
Q5_K_M	5	10.1 GB	High	C52
Q6_K	6	11.5 GB	High	C52
Q8_0	8	15.0 GB	Very High	C53
F16Best for your GPU	16	28.7 GB	Maximum	B56

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Phi 3 Medium 14B on your machine.

Run

ollama run phi3:medium

Frequently asked questions

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB run Phi 3 Medium 14B?

Yes, Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB can run Phi 3 Medium 14B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 65.2 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Phi 3 Medium 14B need?

Phi 3 Medium 14B (14B parameters) requires approximately 22.9 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Phi 3 Medium 14B?

The recommended quantization for Phi 3 Medium 14B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Phi 3 Medium 14B run at on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB, Phi 3 Medium 14B achieves approximately 65.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2969ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB run Phi 3 Medium 14B for coding?

For coding workloads, Phi 3 Medium 14B on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB receives a B grade with 65.2 tok/s and 128K context.

What context window can Phi 3 Medium 14B use on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB, Phi 3 Medium 14B can safely use up to 128K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 128K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB as fast as VRAM for Phi 3 Medium 14B?

Not always. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB 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 Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB See all hardware for Phi 3 Medium 14B

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