Can I Run OLMo 2 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)?

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated November 26, 2024

Yes — comfortably

Yes, comfortably — OLMo 2 13B Instruct at Q8_0 needs about 22.1 GB of the 192 GB usable on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB), leaving ~169.9 GB spare and running at ~23.3 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 4,096 tokens of context.

Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~23.3 tok/s

Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB) — what it gives a model

Usable memory for models192 GB
Memory bandwidth819 GB/s
Form factorDesktop
Operating systemmacOS
Memory upgradeableNo — soldered

OLMo 2 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB): memory by quantization

QuantMemory neededFits 192 GB?Max contextEst. speedDownload
F1634.9 GB✓ Yes4K~14 tok/s27.4 GB
Q8_022.1 GB✓ Yes4K~23.3 tok/s14.6 GB
Q6_K18.7 GB✓ Yes4K~28.2 tok/s11.2 GB
Q5_K_M17.2 GB✓ Yes4K~31.1 tok/s9.7 GB
Q4_K_M15.8 GB✓ Yes4K~34.6 tok/s8.3 GB
Q3_K_M13.4 GB✓ Yes4K~42.6 tok/s5.8 GB
Q2_K12 GB✓ Yes4K~48.8 tok/s4.5 GB

Which OLMo 2 sizes fit

VariantNeeds at Q4_K_MFits?Est. speed
OLMo 2 13B Instruct15.8 GB✓ Fits~34.6 tok/s
OLMo 2 7B Instruct9.5 GB✓ Fits~56.8 tok/s

What to watch out for

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256 GB limitations

Recommended setup

Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput

How these numbers are calculated

FAQ

Can I run OLMo 2 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)?

Yes, comfortably — OLMo 2 13B Instruct at Q8_0 needs about 22.1 GB of the 192 GB usable on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB), leaving ~169.9 GB spare and running at ~23.3 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 4,096 tokens of context.

Which quantization of OLMo 2 should I use on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)?

Q8_0 — it needs about 22.1 GB of the 192 GB available, downloads as roughly 14.6 GB, and runs at an estimated 23.3 tokens/sec with up to 4K of context.

What limits OLMo 2 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)?

Nothing binding — the model fits with headroom and generates at a usable speed on this hardware.

Which runtime should I use?

Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput

Other Computers

Other Models on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)

OLMo 2 on GPUs

What This Model Is Good At

Model & Tools

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