Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated January 6, 2025
Yes — comfortably
Yes, comfortably — Phi-4 (14B) at Q8_0 needs about 17.4 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~30.6 GB spare and running at ~9.3 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~9.3 tok/s
| Usable memory for models | 48 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 273 GB/s |
| Form factor | Mini PC |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Memory upgradeable | No — soldered |
| Quant | Memory needed | Fits 48 GB? | Max context | Est. speed | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F16 | 30.5 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~5.1 tok/s | 28 GB |
| Q8_0 | 17.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~9.3 tok/s | 14.9 GB |
| Q6_K | 14 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~11.7 tok/s | 11.5 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 12.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~13.3 tok/s | 9.9 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 10.9 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~15.4 tok/s | 8.5 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 8.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~20.6 tok/s | 6 GB |
| Q2_K | 7.1 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~25.4 tok/s | 4.6 GB |
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
Yes, comfortably — Phi-4 (14B) at Q8_0 needs about 17.4 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~30.6 GB spare and running at ~9.3 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Q8_0 — it needs about 17.4 GB of the 48 GB available, downloads as roughly 14.9 GB, and runs at an estimated 9.3 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
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