Can I Run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B on a Apple M3 Pro (18GB)?
Runs at Q8_0 — near-lossless quality.
4 quantizations fit your 18.0GB
| Quant | Min VRAM | Recommended | File size | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0BEST | 16.7 GB | 18.2 GB | 15.7 GB | +1.3 GB |
| Q6_K | 13.2 GB | 14.7 GB | 12.2 GB | +4.8 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 11.5 GB | 13.0 GB | 10.5 GB | +6.5 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 10.0 GB | 11.5 GB | 9.0 GB | +8.0 GB |
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Top-ranked open-source models that fit in 18.0GB.
FAQ
Can the Apple M3 Pro (18GB) run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B?
Yes. The Apple M3 Pro (18GB)'s 18.0GB of unified memory is enough to run DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B at Q8_0 quantization (16.7GB required).
What's the best quantization to use?
Q8_0 is the highest-precision quantization that fits in your 18.0GB. It uses about 16.7GB of memory and 18.2GB recommended for comfortable inference.
What if I need more headroom for context length?
KV cache memory grows with context length. The numbers above assume a baseline 2K-4K context. For long-context use (32K+), add another 2-6GB depending on the model architecture.