What fits in 16 GB of unified memory
Data updated . Last reviewed the same day, when this catalog snapshot was written.
4 catalog machines have 16 GB unified. Models are ranked against the Mac mini M4 16GB, the tightest usable pool at this sticker size (11.2 GB). The tok/s estimate uses Mac mini M6 16GB bandwidth (153 GB/s) and is not a benchmark.
Models
| Model | Best quant | Estimate | Headroom | Est. tok/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | FP16 | 3.0 GB | 8.2 GB | 61.9 tok/s |
| Llama 3.2 3B Instruct | FP16 | 7.7 GB | 3.5 GB | 23.8 tok/s |
| Phi-3.5 mini | FP16 | 9.2 GB | 2.0 GB | 20.0 tok/s |
| Phi-4 mini | FP16 | 9.2 GB | 2.0 GB | 19.9 tok/s |
| Gemma 3 4B | FP16 | 10.3 GB | 0.9 GB | 17.8 tok/s |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | Q8 | 4.5 GB | 6.7 GB | 899 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 E4B | Q8 | 8.3 GB | 2.9 GB | 18.7 tok/s |
| Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Q8 | 8.6 GB | 2.6 GB | 18.9 tok/s |
| Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 | Q8 | 8.8 GB | 2.4 GB | 19.9 tok/s |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | Q8 | 9.6 GB | 1.6 GB | 17.9 tok/s |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Q8 | 9.6 GB | 1.6 GB | 19.1 tok/s |
| Qwen3 8B | Q8 | 9.9 GB | 1.3 GB | 17.6 tok/s |
| Ministral 3 8B | Q8 | 10.2 GB | 1.0 GB | 16.9 tok/s |
| Gemma 2 9B | Q8 | 10.7 GB | 0.5 GB | 14.3 tok/s |
| Gemma 3 12B | Q4 | 7.3 GB | 3.9 GB | 21.0 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 12B | Q4 | 7.7 GB | 3.5 GB | 21.5 tok/s |
| Mistral Nemo 12B | Q4 | 8.8 GB | 2.4 GB | 20.5 tok/s |
| Ministral 3 14B | Q4 | 9.6 GB | 1.6 GB | 18.6 tok/s |
| Qwen3 14B | Q4 | 10.3 GB | 0.9 GB | 17.0 tok/s |
| Phi-4 | Q4 | 10.6 GB | 0.6 GB | 17.2 tok/s |
| Qwen2.5 14B Instruct | Q4 | 10.6 GB | 0.6 GB | 17.0 tok/s |
Machines at 16 GB
- Mac mini M4 16GB
11.2 GB usable · $599
- Mac mini M6 16GB
11.2 GB usable · $899
- MacBook Air M4 16GB
11.2 GB usable · $999
- MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 16GB
11.2 GB usable · $1,599
Questions
- How many models fit in 16 GB of unified memory?
- 21 of 49 fit on the tightest config at this size, the Mac mini M4 16GB, which keeps 11.2 GB usable.
- Which catalog machines have 16 GB unified?
- Mac mini M4 16GB (70% usable), Mac mini M6 16GB (70% usable), MacBook Air M4 16GB (70% usable), MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 16GB (70% usable).
- Why is the ranking based on the tightest config?
- So a model listed as fitting works on every 16 GB machine here, including ones that reserve more memory for the OS. A looser machine has more headroom than the table shows.