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Can the Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) run Llama 3.2 3B?

Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) × Llama 3.2 3B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP168 GB of 192 GB
Weights 6.4 GBKV cache 0.9 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Speed~77tokens per second
Max context128Kthe model's full window
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Yes. The Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) can run Llama 3.2 3B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 8 GB of the 192 GB available, at roughly 77 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Llama 3.2 3B:

ollama run llama3.2:3b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 3.5 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)? Run Llama 3.2 3B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Rent a GPU on RunPodRent a GPU on Vast.ai

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 192 GB the Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 192 GB of the 256 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality8 GBFits~77 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless5 GBFits~144 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent4.2 GBFits~187 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good3.8 GBFits~215 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular3.5 GBFits~253 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded3.1 GBFits~313 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded2.7 GBFits~408 tok/s

Measured speed from real Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own Apple M3 Ultra (256GB), next to our estimate.

No one has measured Llama 3.2 3B on the Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)? Add your real speed

One command times Llama 3.2 3B in your own Ollama, shows you exactly what it would send, and asks before sending anything. No sign-up, no personal data.

macOS and Linux

curl -fsSL https://gpufit.dev/bench.sh | sh -s -- llama3.2:3b

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:GPUFIT_MODEL="llama3.2:3b"; irm https://gpufit.dev/bench.ps1 | iex

How the benchmark works

GPUs that run Llama 3.2 3B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) run Llama 3.2 3B?

Yes. The Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) can run Llama 3.2 3B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 8 GB of the 192 GB available, at roughly 77 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Llama 3.2 3B need?

About 3.5 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 8 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Llama 3.2 3B on the Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)?

Roughly 77 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)'s 819 GB/s memory bandwidth.