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Can the Apple M4 (16GB) run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B?

Apple M4 (16GB) × DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B8K context
NoDoes not fit in memory
Memory at Q4_K_M22.6 GB of 10.7 GB
Weights 19.9 GBKV cache 2.1 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

No. Even at Q4_K_M, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B needs about 22.6 GB, but the Apple M4 (16GB) has 10.7 GB usable. You could offload some layers to system RAM, but it will be very slow.

Try other context lengths

Run it on a rented GPU

On a cloud GPU with enough memory, the same command you'd use locally works:

ollama run deepseek-r1:32b

At Q4_K_M it needs about 22.6 GB, so pick a GPU with at least 24 GB.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M4 (16GB)

Run it in the cloud

Too big for the Apple M4 (16GB)? Run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B on a rented GPU instead.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time. Not sure whether to rent or buy? Compare the cost.

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 10.7 GB the Apple M4 (16GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 10.7 GB of the 16 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality68.3 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless37.6 GBToo big—
Q6_KExcellent29.6 GBToo big—
Q5_K_MVery good26.1 GBToo big—
Q4_K_MGood, most popular22.6 GBToo big—
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded18.8 GBToo big—
Q2_KHeavily degraded15 GBToo big—

Measured speed from real Apple M4 (16GB) owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own Apple M4 (16GB), next to our estimate.

No one has measured DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B on the Apple M4 (16GB) yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an Apple M4 (16GB)? Add your real speed

One command times DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B 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 -- deepseek-r1:32b

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:GPUFIT_MODEL="deepseek-r1:32b"; irm https://gpufit.dev/bench.ps1 | iex

How the benchmark works

GPUs that run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B comfortably

Check NVIDIA RTX 3090 prices

Models that run well on the Apple M4 (16GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M4 (16GB) run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B?

No. Even at Q4_K_M, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B needs about 22.6 GB, but the Apple M4 (16GB) has 10.7 GB usable. You could offload some layers to system RAM, but it will be very slow.

How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B need?

About 22.6 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 68.3 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B on the Apple M4 (16GB)?

It does not fit in the Apple M4 (16GB)'s memory, so most layers would run from system RAM and generation would be very slow.