Question 1

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB can run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 109.1 tok/s.

Question 2

How much VRAM does Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct need?

Accepted Answer

Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (8B parameters) requires approximately 17.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

Question 3

What is the best quantization for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Accepted Answer

The recommended quantization for Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	114.1 tok/s	2468 ms	117K
Chat	C	Runs well	114.1 tok/s	925 ms	32K
Coding	C	Runs well	109.1 tok/s	1775 ms	62K
RAG	C	Runs well	114.1 tok/s	3084 ms	117K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	114.1 tok/s	2005 ms	62K

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.1 GB	Low	D30
Q3_K_S	3	3.9 GB	Low	D31
NVFP4	4

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Memory breakdown