Question 1

Can MacBook Air M3 24GB run DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B?

Accepted Answer

Yes, MacBook Air M3 24GB can run DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 13.3 tok/s.

Question 2

How much VRAM does DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B need?

Accepted Answer

DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 9.9 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

Question 3

What is the best quantization for DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B?

Accepted Answer

The recommended quantization for DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	13.9 tok/s	20209 ms	49K
Chat	C	Runs well	13.9 tok/s	7578 ms	15K
Coding	C	Runs well	13.3 tok/s	14535 ms	28K
RAG	C	Runs well	13.9 tok/s	25261 ms	49K
Reasoning	C	Runs well	13.9 tok/s	16420 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 M3 24GB run DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B?

Memory breakdown