// RUN โ€” FITS

Can the Apple M2 Max 96GB run phi-3-medium 14B?

Yes โ€” here's how fast and up to what context, with real measured numbers.

phi-3-medium 14B on the Apple M2 Max 96GB

QuantFits?Max contextSpeedBeyond context
FP16 yes 347k 9.7-11.7 t/s ~0.2-0.3 (slow)
Q8 yes 433k 19.4-23.4 t/s ~0.5-0.6 (slow)
Q4 yes 470k 34.7-41.8 t/s ~0.9-1 (slow)

Estimate (memory-bound). Beyond "max context" the KV cache spills to SSD swap and speed drops to the "beyond" figure.

FAQ

Can the Apple M2 Max 96GB run phi-3-medium 14B?โ–ถ

Yes. At Q4 it generates ~34.7-41.8 tok/s and fits up to 470k context; beyond that it spills to SSD swap and slows to ~0.9-1 tok/s.

How much context fits?โ–ถ

At Q4, up to about 470k tokens stay in fast memory; longer context spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses.