What can Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) run for reasoning?
Build: Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) + — + 32 GB RAM (windows)
Runs comfortably21 models
Ranked by fit for reasoning use case + predicted speed. Click a row for VRAM breakdown.
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 10.0 GBHeadroom: 14.0 GBollama run gemma3:1b976tok/sE
ollama run gemma3:1bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 10.5 GBHeadroom: 13.5 GBollama run llama3.2:1b554tok/sE
ollama run llama3.2:1bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 12.1 GBHeadroom: 11.9 GBollama run gemma4:e2b277tok/sE
ollama run gemma4:e2bQuant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 13.7 GBHeadroom: 10.3 GB232tok/sE
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 18.0 GBHeadroom: 6.0 GB122tok/sE
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 13.7 GBHeadroom: 10.3 GBollama run llama3.2:3b185tok/sE
ollama run llama3.2:3bQuant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 13.4 GBHeadroom: 10.6 GBollama run phi4-reasoning:14b70tok/sE
ollama run phi4-reasoning:14bQuant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 13.4 GBHeadroom: 10.6 GBollama run deepseek-r1:14b70tok/sE
ollama run deepseek-r1:14bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 15.0 GBHeadroom: 9.0 GBollama run phi3.5:3.8b146tok/sE
ollama run phi3.5:3.8bQuant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 16.8 GBHeadroom: 7.2 GBollama run codegemma:7b139tok/sE
ollama run codegemma:7bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 15.4 GBHeadroom: 8.6 GBollama run gemma4:e4b139tok/sE
ollama run gemma4:e4bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 15.4 GBHeadroom: 8.6 GBollama run qwen3:4b139tok/sE
ollama run qwen3:4bRuns with tradeoffs14 models
Tight VRAM, partial CPU offload, or context-limited.
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 20.2 GBHeadroom: 3.8 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.8 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run deepseek-r1:7b79tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.8 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run deepseek-r1:7bQuant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 21.4 GBHeadroom: 2.6 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.6 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run llama3.2-vision:11b89tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.6 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run llama3.2-vision:11bQuant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 22.5 GBHeadroom: 1.5 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.5 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:12b81tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.5 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:12bQuant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 22.5 GBHeadroom: 1.5 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.5 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run pixtral:12b81tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.5 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run pixtral:12bQuant: Q5_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 23.6 GBHeadroom: 0.4 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 0.4 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run mistral-nemo:12b71tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 0.4 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run mistral-nemo:12bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 21.8 GBHeadroom: 2.2 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.2 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run qwen3:8b69tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.2 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run qwen3:8bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 21.8 GBHeadroom: 2.2 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.2 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run hermes3:8b69tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.2 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run hermes3:8bQuant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 23.4 GBHeadroom: 0.6 GB- • Tight VRAM fit — only 0.6 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma2:9b62tok/sE
- • Tight VRAM fit — only 0.6 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma2:9bWhat 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.
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Won't runtop 5 popular models
Need more memory than you have. Shown for orientation.
Needs ~160 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
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Needs ~160 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
Needs ~80 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
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Needs ~80 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
Needs ~420 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
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Needs ~420 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
Needs ~22 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
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Needs ~22 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
Needs ~48 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
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Needs ~48 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.
How to read these numbers
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