RUNLOCALAIv38
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RUNLOCALAI · v38
Will it run? / Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) / creative

What can Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) run for creative?

Build: Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) + — + 32 GB RAM (windows)

Memory: 32 GB unified memory
Runner: llama.cpp (Metal)
AnyChatCodingAgentsReasoningVisionLong contextCreative

Runs comfortably
162 models

Ranked by fit for creative use case + predicted speed. Click a row for VRAM breakdown.

#1Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B
8B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 13.6 GBHeadroom: 10.4 GB
ollama run hermes3:8b
58
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
8.50 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
0.43 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#2Gemma 2 9B Instruct
9B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 15.2 GBHeadroom: 8.8 GB
ollama run gemma2:9b
52
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
9.56 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
0.49 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#3Hermes 3 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.1 GBHeadroom: 19.9 GB
274
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#4Dolphin 3.0 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
dolphin
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.1 GBHeadroom: 19.9 GB
274
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#5Gemma 2 2B Instruct
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 3.0 GBHeadroom: 21.0 GB
411
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.21 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.07 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#6Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 3.9 GBHeadroom: 20.1 GB
ollama run gemma4:e2b
233
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
2.13 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.11 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#7ColPali v1.3
3B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 0VRAM: 2.6 GBHeadroom: 21.4 GB
274
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
0.00 GB
Activations
0.09 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#8CodeGemma 7B
7B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 8.6 GBHeadroom: 15.4 GB
ollama run codegemma:7b
117
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#9Gemma 4 E4B (Effective 4B)
4B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 7.2 GBHeadroom: 16.8 GB
ollama run gemma4:e4b
117
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.25 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#10Gemma 3 4B
4B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 7.2 GBHeadroom: 16.8 GB
ollama run gemma3:4b
117
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.25 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#11Turkish Gemma 9B T1
9B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 10.9 GBHeadroom: 13.1 GB
91
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
5.43 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
0.28 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#12YTU Turkish Gemma 9B v0.1
9.2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 11.1 GBHeadroom: 12.9 GB
ollama run alibayram/turkish-gemma-9b-v0.1:latest
89
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
5.55 GB
KV cache
4.60 GB
Activations
0.29 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →

Runs with tradeoffs
20 models

Tight VRAM, partial CPU offload, or context-limited.

Gemma 3 12B
12B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 20.1 GBHeadroom: 3.9 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.9 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:12b
39
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
12.75 GB
KV cache
6.00 GB
Activations
0.65 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Gemma 4 26B MoE
26B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 20.4 GBHeadroom: 3.6 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.6 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma4:26b-moe
32
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
15.70 GB
KV cache
3.25 GB
Activations
0.79 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Gemma 4 Turkish 26B (4B active)
26B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 20.4 GBHeadroom: 3.6 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.6 GB headroom left for context growth
32
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
15.70 GB
KV cache
3.25 GB
Activations
0.79 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Gemma 3 27B
27B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 21.2 GBHeadroom: 2.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.8 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:27b
30
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
16.30 GB
KV cache
3.38 GB
Activations
0.82 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
MedGemma 27B
27B
gemma
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 21.2 GBHeadroom: 2.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.8 GB headroom left for context growth
30
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
16.30 GB
KV cache
3.38 GB
Activations
0.82 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
GPT-OSS Swallow 20B RL v0.1
20B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 23.4 GBHeadroom: 0.6 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 0.6 GB headroom left for context growth
41
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
12.07 GB
KV cache
10.00 GB
Activations
0.61 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Mistral Nemo 12B Instruct
12B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 20.1 GBHeadroom: 3.9 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.9 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run mistral-nemo:12b
39
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
12.75 GB
KV cache
6.00 GB
Activations
0.65 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Pixtral 12B
12B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 20.1 GBHeadroom: 3.9 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.9 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run pixtral:12b
39
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
12.75 GB
KV cache
6.00 GB
Activations
0.65 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →

What if you upgraded?

Hypothetical scenarios. We re-ran the compatibility engine for each.

Move up an Apple memory tier

~$200–400 over base

On Apple Silicon, more unified memory is the only path forward — VRAM and system RAM are the same pool.

Shop this upgrade↗

Some links above are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How we make money.

Won't run
top 5 popular models

Need more memory than you have. Shown for orientation.

DeepSeek V4 Pro (1.6T MoE)
1600B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Needs ~1024 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.

—
Qwen 3.5 235B-A17B (MoE)
397B
qwen
Commercial OK

Needs ~256 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.

—
Qwen 3 235B-A22B
235B
qwen
Commercial OK

Needs ~160 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.

—
DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)
671B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Needs ~420 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.

—
DeepSeek V4 Flash (284B MoE)
284B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Needs ~192 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.

—

How to read these numbers

Measured here
Measured here - RunLocalAI ran this exact combo on owner hardware with public evidence.

Source-backed
Source-backed / community - a reproduced public source supports the speed, but it is not labeled as owner-measured.

Extrapolated
Extrapolated - predicted from a measured benchmark on similar-bandwidth hardware.

Estimated
Estimated - formula based on VRAM bandwidth and model architecture; not a benchmark row.

RunLocalAI Will-It-Run Framework →

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