Question 1

Can MacBook Air M4 24GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Accepted Answer

Yes, MacBook Air M4 24GB can run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 16.0 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 9.9 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	17.7 tok/s	15905 ms	49K
Chat	C	Runs well	17.7 tok/s	5964 ms	15K
Coding	C	Runs well	16.0 tok/s	12112 ms	28K
RAG	C	Runs well	17.7 tok/s	19881 ms	49K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	17.7 tok/s	12923 ms	28K

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.1 GB	Low	D33
Q3_K_S	3	3.9 GB	Low	D34
NVFP4	4

Can MacBook Air M4 24GB run Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?

Memory breakdown