Qwen 3 8B runs at 54 tok/s (54.4 as recorded) on a 48 GB M5 Pro, a published figure reported by frandroid.com (llama.cpp, 4-bit, single stream; prompt length not stated). It needs about 6 GB of unified memory. It is Alibaba's 8B dense model, released under the Apache 2.0 licence.
Want to run Qwen 3 8B faster — or step up to bigger models? Find your Mac →This is a published figure: a real run, reported by its source and linked below. The index records it as given and never adjusts it.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Tokens per second | sourced54 tok/s |
| Provenance | published figure · frandroid.com |
| Quantization | 4-bit |
| Engine | llama.cpp |
| Context | single stream; prompt length not stated |
| Figure dated | 2026-10-15 |
| Minimum RAM | 6 GB |
| Parameters | 8B |
| Chip bandwidth | 307 GB/s |
Each row as the index holds it, with its source. “Mac RAM” is the memory of the Mac a run used, not the model’s requirement (6 GB). The headline figure follows the reference rule: the lower-median measured plain-decode run at 5 bits or fewer (a run whose quant was not stated counts only when no stated-quant run qualifies), else the estimate; a run marked “not used to anchor estimates” is listed here but never becomes the headline.
| Speed | Quant | Engine | Mac RAM | Context | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sourced54.4 tok/s | 4-bit | llama.cpp | 48 GB | single stream; prompt length not stated | frandroid.com | Frandroid's RTX Spark review: MacBook Pro 14 M5 Pro (18-core CPU, 48 GB), llama.cpp b11582 on Metal, a 5 GB 4-bit GGUF whose type the review does not name. |
Ollama — install it (brew install ollama or the app from ollama.com), then pull the model by its tag, checked on ollama.com on 2026-10-24:
MLX — pick a build from Hugging Face’s MLX listings, then run it with its repo id:
Downloads: Search the Ollama library → · model card →
The 54 tok/s figure above came from llama.cpp at 4-bit; other runtimes and quants run at different speeds.
Prefer a GUI? LM Studio downloads GGUF and MLX builds in one click. Step by step: install Ollama on a Mac.
Alibaba's 8B model, ~91 tok/s on M5 Max. Apache 2.0 license, LLMCheck capability 15/50.
Apache 2.0 licence · 8B · 128K context · LLMCheck capability 15/50 · see its leaderboard rank →
Qwen 3 8B needs about 6 GB of unified memory. These current Apple Silicon Macs have the headroom to run it comfortably:
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See how Qwen 3 8B stacks up against other models on your specific Mac hardware.
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