Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated December 18, 2024
Yes
Yes — Falcon 3 10B Instruct at Q6_K needs about 10.6 GB of the 12 GB usable on MacBook Air (M4, 16 GB) (~1.4 GB spare), at ~7.1 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q6_K · Estimated speed: ~7.1 tok/s
| Usable memory for models | 12 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 120 GB/s |
| Form factor | Laptop |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Memory upgradeable | No — soldered |
| Quant | Memory needed | Fits 12 GB? | Max context | Est. speed | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F16 | 22.7 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 20.6 GB |
| Q8_0 | 13.1 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 10.9 GB |
| Q6_K | 10.6 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~7.1 tok/s | 8.4 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 9.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~8.1 tok/s | 7.3 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 8.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~9.3 tok/s | 6.2 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 6.5 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~12.5 tok/s | 4.4 GB |
| Q2_K | 5.5 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~15.5 tok/s | 3.4 GB |
| Variant | Needs at Q4_K_M | Fits? | Est. speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Falcon 3 10B Instruct | 8.4 GB | ✓ Fits | ~9.3 tok/s |
| Falcon 3 7B Instruct | 6.2 GB | ✓ Fits | ~12.7 tok/s |
| Falcon 3 3B Instruct | 3.5 GB | ✓ Fits | ~26.1 tok/s |
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
Yes — Falcon 3 10B Instruct at Q6_K needs about 10.6 GB of the 12 GB usable on MacBook Air (M4, 16 GB) (~1.4 GB spare), at ~7.1 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Q6_K — it needs about 10.6 GB of the 12 GB available, downloads as roughly 8.4 GB, and runs at an estimated 7.1 tokens/sec with up to 16K of context.
Nothing binding — the model fits with headroom and generates at a usable speed on this hardware.
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput