Can I Run Granite 4.1 30B on a Apple M3 Pro (18GB)?
Runs at Q4_K_S — good quality with reasonable headroom.
6 quantizations fit your 18.0GB
| Quant | Min VRAM | Recommended | File size | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_SBEST | 17.6 GB | 19.1 GB | 16.5 GB | +0.4 GB |
| Q4_0 | 17.3 GB | 18.8 GB | 16.4 GB | +0.7 GB |
| Q3_K_L | 13.9 GB | 15.4 GB | 15.1 GB | +4.1 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 13.1 GB | 14.6 GB | 14.0 GB | +4.9 GB |
| Q3_K_S | 12.1 GB | 13.6 GB | 12.6 GB | +5.9 GB |
| Q2_K | 10.5 GB | 12.0 GB | 10.7 GB | +7.5 GB |
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All quant variants, benchmark scores, and use-case tags.
Top-ranked open-source models that fit in 18.0GB.
FAQ
Can the Apple M3 Pro (18GB) run Granite 4.1 30B?
Yes. The Apple M3 Pro (18GB)'s 18.0GB of unified memory is enough to run Granite 4.1 30B at Q4_K_S quantization (17.6GB required).
What's the best quantization to use?
Q4_K_S is the highest-precision quantization that fits in your 18.0GB. It uses about 17.6GB of memory and 19.1GB 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.