Can Phi 3 Medium 14B run on MacBook Pro M3 Pro 36GB?

YES — Runs Great

B60Good

○Estimated from fit model

Phi 3 Medium 14B needs ~16.4 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M3 Pro 36GB has 25.9 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~13 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: Very lowStack: StandardBottleneck: Memory bandwidth

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.

Current mode

Balanced

Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 16.4 GB, 13.8 tok/s, Runs well

16.4 GB required25.9 GB available

63% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

13.8 tok/s

TTFT

14046 ms

Safe context

66K

Memory

16.4 GB / 25.9 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights8.5 GB

KV Cache3.1 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom3.9 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsPhi 3 Medium 14B on MacBook Pro M3 Pro 36GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Solve: If a train travels at 60 mph for 2.5 hours, how far does it go?
Let me work through this step by step.

Given information:
 - Speed = 60 mph (miles per hour)
 - Time = 2.5 hours

Formula: Distance = Speed x Time

Calculation:
 Distance = 60 mph x 2.5 h
 = 150 miles

The train travels 150 miles.

Double-check: at 60 mph the train covers 60 miles each hour. In half an hour it covers 30 miles. So in 2.5 hours: 60 + 60 + 30 = 150 miles. Confirmed.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>What if the train stops for 20 minutes halfway?
The stop doesn't change the total distance covered while moving, but it affects total trip time.

Breakdown:
 - First half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles
 - Stop: 20 minutes (no distance)
 - Second half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles

Total distance: 150 miles (same)
Total time: 2.5 h + 0.33 h = 2.83 hours
Average speed: 150 / 2.83 = 53 mph

The distance stays the same but average speed drops to 53 mph because of the stop.
Estimated: 13.8 tok/s decode · 14.0s TTFT (warm) · 35 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Shared-memory contention still exists

The OS, browser, and inference runtime all compete for the same physical memory pool, so real-world headroom is less forgiving than raw capacity suggests.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	B	Runs well	12.8 tok/s	8236 ms	66K
Coding	B	Runs well	12.8 tok/s	15099 ms	66K
Agentic Coding	B	Runs well	12.8 tok/s	21962 ms	66K
Reasoning	B	Runs well	12.8 tok/s	17844 ms	66K
RAG	B	Runs well	12.8 tok/s	27453 ms	66K