---
title: "iMac M1: What AI Models Can It Run? | ModelPiper"
description: "Local AI on the M1 iMac: 68.25 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 to 16 GB of unified memory. See which LLMs fit, at which quantization, and how fast they run."
canonical: "https://modelpiper.com/imac/m1"
---

# iMac M1: What AI Models Can It Run? | ModelPiper

> Local AI on the M1 iMac: 68.25 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 to 16 GB of unified memory. See which LLMs fit, at which quantization, and how fast they run.

[← All iMac models](/imac)

# iMac M1

The M1 iMac runs local models at 68.25 GB/s of memory bandwidth with 8 to 16 GB of unified memory. On Apple Silicon that memory is shared with the GPU, so the whole pool is available for weights: at 16 GB you can hold roughly a 20B dense model at Q4. A base M chip is the narrow end of the memory bus. It runs small models pleasantly and stops hard at the memory ceiling, which is the constraint you will hit first.

Apple no longer sells this configuration new. It stays fully evaluated here because the used market is where most of its local AI value now sits.

## Specifications

ChipApple M1

CPU cores8

GPU cores7 or 8

Unified memory8 or 16 GB

Memory bandwidth68.25 GB/s

Neural Engine11 TOPS

Released2020

AvailabilityUsed market

Memory bandwidth is faster than 0% of the Apple Silicon chips shipped in a Mac, against a 819 GB/s peak.

Its memory ceiling is above 0% of them, against a 512 GB peak.

## Pick your configuration

Every option Apple sells with this chip. The model list below recomputes against the one you pick.

GPU cores

7-core 8-core

Unified memory

8 GB16 GB

## What each memory option runs

Unified memory is the ceiling and it is soldered, so this is the decision you cannot revisit.

[8 GB](#ram-8gb)[16 GB](#ram-16gb)

### 8 GB unified memory

7 GB usable for weights · 68.25 GB/s

2,863 of 3,641 models fit, and 1,869 of them run with headroom rather than as a squeeze.

Largest model at Q4

[moondream3 preview](/fit/moondream-moondream3-preview) · 9.27B

Best all-round pick

[Qwen3.5 0.8B](/fit/qwen-qwen3-5-0-8b) · Q8\_0 · ~41 tok/s

### 16 GB unified memory

14 GB usable for weights · 68.25 GB/s

3,128 of 3,641 models fit, and 2,907 of them run with headroom rather than as a squeeze.

Largest model at Q4

[DeepSeek V4 Flash JANGTQ2](/fit/osaurusai-deepseek-v4-flash-jangtq2) · 20.2B

Best all-round pick

[Qwen3.5 0.8B](/fit/qwen-qwen3-5-0-8b) · Q8\_0 · ~41 tok/s

## What a 8 GB M1 iMac can run

Every model in the database against this exact configuration, at 68.25 GB/s. Ratings and speeds are the same numbers the model pages show.

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Best Fit

Showing 3641 of 3641 models

[Qwen3.5 0.8B](/fit/qwen-qwen3-5-0-8b)

Multimodal · Alibaba · 2026-02-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.5 GB18% of RAM~41 tok/sEstimated0.87B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3.5 0.8B Base](/fit/qwen-qwen3-5-0-8b-base)

Multimodal · Alibaba · 2026-02-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.5 GB18% of RAM~41 tok/sEstimated0.87B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 ColBERT 350M](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-colbert-350m)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 350M](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-350m)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 350M Extract](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-350m-extract)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 350M PII Extract JP](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-350m-pii-extract-jp)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 350M ENJP MT](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-350m-enjp-mt)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 350M Math](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-350m-math)

Reasoning · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2.5 1.2B Thinking](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-5-1-2b-thinking)

Reasoning · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 700M](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-700m)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB17% of RAM~48 tok/sEstimated0.74B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 1.2B](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-1-2b)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2.5 1.2B Base](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-5-1-2b-base)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 1.2B Extract](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-1-2b-extract)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 1.2B Tool](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-1-2b-tool)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 1.2B RAG](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-1-2b-rag)

General · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 VL 450M](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-vl-450m)

Multimodal · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~79 tok/sEstimated0.45B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2.5 1.2B Instruct](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-5-1-2b-instruct)

Chat · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2.5 1.2B JP](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-5-1-2b-jp)

Chat · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Jolia](/fit/raidium-jolia)

General · raidium · 2026-06-15

Q8\_0Excellent

0.5 GB7% of RAM~1,788 tok/sEstimated0.02B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[embeddinggemma GTAIDE 300m 2605](/fit/taide-embeddinggemma-gtaide-300m-2605)

Embedding · taide · 2026-06-12

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~119 tok/sEstimated0.3B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2 0.5B](/fit/qwen-qwen2-0-5b)

General · Alibaba

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[surya ocr 2](/fit/datalab-to-surya-ocr-2)

Multimodal · datalab-to

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB16% of RAM~52 tok/sEstimated0.69B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[distil lfm25 shellper](/fit/distil-labs-distil-lfm25-shellper)

General · distil-labs

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[reformer crime and punishment](/fit/google-reformer-crime-and-punishment)

General · Google

Q8\_0Excellent

0.5 GB6% of RAM~3,575 tok/sEstimated0.01B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[gpt oss safeguard 120b](/fit/openai-gpt-oss-safeguard-120b)

General · openai

Q8\_0Excellent

3.1 GB39% of RAMBenchmark needed2.37B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2.5 350M Base](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-5-350m-base)

General · Liquid AI

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[ERNIE 4.5 0.3B PT](/fit/baidu-ernie-4-5-0-3b-pt)

General · baidu

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~99 tok/sEstimated0.36B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[OTel LLM 20B IT](/fit/farbodtavakkoli-otel-llm-20b-it)

General · farbodtavakkoli

Q8\_0Excellent

2.5 GB31% of RAMBenchmark needed1.77B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[FastVLM 0.5B](/fit/kamilamila-fastvlm-0-5b)

General · kamilamila

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~58 tok/sEstimated0.62B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2.5 350M home assistant sft](/fit/ordenwills-lfm2-5-350m-home-assistant-sft)

General · ordenwills

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[granite 3.1 1b a400m base](/fit/ibm-granite-granite-3-1-1b-a400m-base)

General · ibm-granite

Q8\_0Excellent

2.0 GB25% of RAMBenchmark needed1.33B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Dayhoff 170m GR](/fit/microsoft-dayhoff-170m-gr)

General · Microsoft

Q8\_0Excellent

0.7 GB9% of RAMBenchmark needed0.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Dayhoff 170m UR90](/fit/microsoft-dayhoff-170m-ur90)

General · Microsoft

Q8\_0Excellent

0.7 GB9% of RAMBenchmark needed0.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Hunyuan 0.5B Pretrain](/fit/tencent-hunyuan-0-5b-pretrain)

General · tencent

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB14% of RAM~66 tok/sEstimated0.54B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[GLM 0.5B](/fit/primeintellect-glm-0-5b)

General · primeintellect

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB14% of RAMBenchmark needed0.54B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3 0.6B](/fit/qwen-qwen3-0-6b)

General · Alibaba · 2025-04-27

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB17% of RAM~48 tok/sEstimated0.75B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3.5 2B](/fit/qwen-qwen3-5-2b)

Multimodal · Alibaba · 2026-02-28

Q8\_0Excellent

3.0 GB38% of RAM~16 tok/sEstimated2.27B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3.5 2B Base](/fit/qwen-qwen3-5-2b-base)

Multimodal · Alibaba · 2026-02-28

Q8\_0Excellent

3.0 GB38% of RAM~16 tok/sEstimated2.27B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Tashkeel 700M](/fit/etherll-tashkeel-700m)

General · etherll

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB17% of RAM~48 tok/sEstimated0.74B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3.5 0.8B Claude 4.6 Opus Reasoning Distilled](/fit/jackrong-qwen3-5-0-8b-claude-4-6-opus-reasoning-distilled)

Reasoning · jackrong

Q8\_0Excellent

1.5 GB18% of RAM~41 tok/sEstimated0.87B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3.5 0.8B Coder Calude Full](/fit/rahul7star-qwen3-5-0-8b-coder-calude-full)

Coding · rahul7star

Q8\_0Excellent

1.5 GB18% of RAM~41 tok/sEstimated0.87B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3 Coder Next DFlash](/fit/z-lab-qwen3-coder-next-dflash)

Coding · z-lab

Q8\_0Excellent

1.7 GB21% of RAM~33 tok/sEstimated1.08B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2.5 0.5B](/fit/qwen-qwen2-5-0-5b)

General · Alibaba

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3 0.6B Base](/fit/qwen-qwen3-0-6b-base)

General · Alibaba

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~60 tok/sEstimated0.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[harrier oss v1 0.6b](/fit/microsoft-harrier-oss-v1-0-6b)

General · Microsoft

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~60 tok/sEstimated0.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[MiniCPM5 1B](/fit/openbmb-minicpm5-1b)

General · openbmb

Q8\_0Excellent

1.7 GB21% of RAM~33 tok/sEstimated1.08B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[voyage 4 nano](/fit/voyageai-voyage-4-nano)

General · voyageai

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[harrier oss v1 270m](/fit/microsoft-harrier-oss-v1-270m)

General · Microsoft

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~132 tok/sEstimated0.27B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[OTel LLM 0.6B IT](/fit/farbodtavakkoli-otel-llm-0-6b-it)

General · farbodtavakkoli

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~79 tok/sEstimated0.45B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[OTel LLM 270M IT](/fit/farbodtavakkoli-otel-llm-270m-it)

General · farbodtavakkoli

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~132 tok/sEstimated0.27B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[pii extractor gemma 3 270m it](/fit/jakobhuss-pii-extractor-gemma-3-270m-it)

General · jakobhuss

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~132 tok/sEstimated0.27B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llava interleave qwen 0.5b hf](/fit/llava-hf-llava-interleave-qwen-0-5b-hf)

General · llava-hf

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[PaddleOCR VL 1.5](/fit/paddlepaddle-paddleocr-vl-1-5)

General · paddlepaddle

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAM~37 tok/sEstimated0.96B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[MiniCPM5 1B SFT](/fit/openbmb-minicpm5-1b-sft)

General · openbmb

Q8\_0Excellent

1.7 GB21% of RAM~33 tok/sEstimated1.08B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llama 3.2 1b code instruct](/fit/shahriarferdoush-llama-3-2-1b-code-instruct)

Coding · shahriarferdoush

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~29 tok/sEstimated1.24B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[MiniCPM4 0.5B](/fit/openbmb-minicpm4-0-5b)

General · openbmb

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB12% of RAM~83 tok/sEstimated0.43B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[EXAONE 4.0 1.2B](/fit/lgai-exaone-exaone-4-0-1-2b)

General · LG AI · 2025-07-15

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~30 tok/sEstimated1.2B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[granite 4.0 350m base](/fit/ibm-granite-granite-4-0-350m-base)

General · ibm-granite

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[NuExtract tiny](/fit/numind-nuextract-tiny)

General · numind

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~78 tok/sEstimated0.46B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[PolyGuard Qwen Smol](/fit/toxicityprompts-polyguard-qwen-smol)

General · toxicityprompts

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[granite 4.0 350m](/fit/ibm-granite-granite-4-0-350m)

General · ibm-granite

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~102 tok/sEstimated0.35B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[SpatialLM1.1 Qwen 0.5B Structured3D SFT](/fit/ysmao-spatiallm1-1-qwen-0-5b-structured3d-sft)

General · ysmao

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~60 tok/sEstimated0.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[PaddleOCR VL](/fit/paddlepaddle-paddleocr-vl)

General · paddlepaddle

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAM~37 tok/sEstimated0.96B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llava onevision qwen2 0.5b ov](/fit/lmms-lab-llava-onevision-qwen2-0-5b-ov)

General · lmms-lab

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3 0.3B distil](/fit/tabularisai-qwen3-0-3b-distil)

General · tabularisai

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB12% of RAM~94 tok/sEstimated0.38B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[NuExtract 1.5 tiny](/fit/numind-nuextract-1-5-tiny)

General · numind

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[TinyMixtral 4x248M MoE](/fit/isotonic-tinymixtral-4x248m-moe)

General · isotonic

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB16% of RAMBenchmark needed0.7B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[SpatialLM1.1 Qwen 0.5B](/fit/manycore-research-spatiallm1-1-qwen-0-5b)

General · manycore-research

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~60 tok/sEstimated0.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3 ASR 0.6B](/fit/bezzam-qwen3-asr-0-6b)

General · bezzam

Q8\_0Excellent

1.4 GB17% of RAM~46 tok/sEstimated0.78B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[granite 3.1 3b a800m base](/fit/ibm-granite-granite-3-1-3b-a800m-base)

General · ibm-granite

Q8\_0Excellent

4.2 GB52% of RAMBenchmark needed3.3B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Huihui MoE 0.8B 2E](/fit/huihui-ai-huihui-moe-0-8b-2e)

General · huihui-ai

Q8\_0Excellent

1.5 GB18% of RAMBenchmark needed0.86B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[ODIN C1](/fit/skis-ai-research-odin-c1)

General · skis-ai-research

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.17B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llama3.2\_1B\_vl](/fit/thkim0305-llama3-2_1b_vl)

General · thkim0305

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAM~36 tok/sEstimated1B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune hier col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.9\_20260418\_063208](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-hier-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-9_20260418_063208)

General · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.9\_20260418\_062617](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-9_20260418_062617)

General · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.9\_20260418\_062427](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-9_20260418_062427)

General · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[CeluneNorm 0.6B v1.1](/fit/lunahr-celunenorm-0-6b-v1-1)

General · lunahr

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~60 tok/sEstimated0.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[granite 4.0 h 350m base](/fit/ibm-granite-granite-4-0-h-350m-base)

General · ibm-granite

Q8\_0Excellent

0.9 GB11% of RAM~105 tok/sEstimated0.34B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.7\_20260416\_182923](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-7_20260416_182923)

General · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[CeluneNorm 0.6B v1.2](/fit/lunahr-celunenorm-0-6b-v1-2)

General · lunahr

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~60 tok/sEstimated0.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune dyn col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.9 r32\_20260422\_002811](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-dyn-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-9-r32_20260422_002811)

General · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune latent sparse moe 4e 1k\_20260413\_214436](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-latent-sparse-moe-4e-1k_20260413_214436)

General · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[GLM OCR](/fit/zai-org-glm-ocr)

Multimodal · zai-org

Q8\_0Excellent

2.0 GB25% of RAM~27 tok/sEstimated1.33B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[MiniCPM V 4.6](/fit/openbmb-minicpm-v-4-6)

Multimodal · openbmb

Q8\_0Excellent

2.0 GB24% of RAM~28 tok/sEstimated1.3B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[canine c](/fit/google-canine-c)

General · Google

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB8% of RAM~275 tok/sEstimated0.13B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[InternVL3 1B hf](/fit/opengvlab-internvl3-1b-hf)

Multimodal · opengvlab

Q8\_0Excellent

1.5 GB19% of RAM~38 tok/sEstimated0.94B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Ilama 3.2 1B](/fit/hmellor-ilama-3-2-1b)

General · hmellor

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~29 tok/sEstimated1.24B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[OTel LLM 1.2B IT](/fit/farbodtavakkoli-otel-llm-1-2b-it)

General · farbodtavakkoli

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB23% of RAM~30 tok/sEstimated1.21B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3Guard Gen 0.6B](/fit/qwen-qwen3guard-gen-0-6b)

General · Alibaba

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB17% of RAM~48 tok/sEstimated0.75B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[GOT OCR2\_0](/fit/stepfun-ai-got-ocr2_0)

Multimodal · stepfun-ai

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB16% of RAM~50 tok/sEstimated0.72B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Falcon H1 0.5B Base](/fit/tiiuae-falcon-h1-0-5b-base)

General · TII

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB14% of RAM~69 tok/sEstimated0.52B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[canine s](/fit/google-canine-s)

General · Google

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB8% of RAM~275 tok/sEstimated0.13B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2.5 VL 1.6B](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-5-vl-1-6b)

Multimodal · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

2.3 GB29% of RAM~22 tok/sEstimated1.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B](/fit/qwen-qwen2-5-coder-0-5b)

Coding · Alibaba

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Orpo Llama 3.2 1B 15k](/fit/adamlucek-orpo-llama-3-2-1b-15k)

General · adamlucek

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~29 tok/sEstimated1.24B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Llama 3.2 1B Aegis SFT DPO](/fit/ahczhg-llama-3-2-1b-aegis-sft-dpo)

General · ahczhg

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~29 tok/sEstimated1.24B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[CyberXP\_Agent\_Llama\_3.2\_1B](/fit/abaryan-cyberxp_agent_llama_3-2_1b)

General · abaryan

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~29 tok/sEstimated1.24B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Kurtis EON1 Hybrid 0.7B v0.1.1](/fit/mrs83-kurtis-eon1-hybrid-0-7b-v0-1-1)

General · mrs83

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB16% of RAM~53 tok/sEstimated0.67B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[F2LLM v2 80M](/fit/codefuse-ai-f2llm-v2-80m)

Coding · codefuse-ai

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB7% of RAM~447 tok/sEstimated0.08B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[deepseek coder 1.3b base](/fit/deepseek-ai-deepseek-coder-1-3b-base)

Coding · DeepSeek

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAM~35 tok/sEstimated1.01B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[F2LLM v2 0.6B](/fit/codefuse-ai-f2llm-v2-0-6b)

Coding · codefuse-ai

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB15% of RAM~60 tok/sEstimated0.6B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LFM2 VL 1.6B](/fit/liquidai-lfm2-vl-1-6b)

Multimodal · Liquid AI · 2025-11-28

Q8\_0Excellent

2.3 GB28% of RAM~23 tok/sEstimated1.58B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llama3.2\_1b\_2025\_uncensored\_v2](/fit/carsenk-llama3-2_1b_2025_uncensored_v2)

General · carsenk

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~29 tok/sEstimated1.24B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B Instruct Gensyn Swarm slithering\_hairy\_lemur](/fit/candan77-qwen2-5-coder-0-5b-instruct-gensyn-swarm-slithering_hairy_lemur)

Coding · candan77

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B Instruct Gensyn Swarm leggy\_lithe\_mallard](/fit/tommymir4444-qwen2-5-coder-0-5b-instruct-gensyn-swarm-leggy_lithe_mallard)

Coding · tommymir4444

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[OpenReasoning Nemotron 1.5B](/fit/nvidia-openreasoning-nemotron-1-5b)

Reasoning · nvidia

Q8\_0Excellent

2.2 GB28% of RAM~23 tok/sEstimated1.54B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B Instruct Gensyn Swarm leggy\_jagged\_hawk](/fit/holten51-qwen2-5-coder-0-5b-instruct-gensyn-swarm-leggy_jagged_hawk)

Coding · holten51

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3 0.6B diffusion mdlm v0.1](/fit/dllm-hub-qwen3-0-6b-diffusion-mdlm-v0-1)

General · dllm-hub

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB17% of RAM~48 tok/sEstimated0.75B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[PARD Qwen3 0.6B](/fit/amd-pard-qwen3-0-6b)

General · amd

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB17% of RAM~48 tok/sEstimated0.75B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B Instruct Gensyn Swarm bipedal\_extinct\_owl](/fit/baebii-qwen2-5-coder-0-5b-instruct-gensyn-swarm-bipedal_extinct_owl)

Coding · baebii

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B Instruct Gensyn Swarm fishy\_camouflaged\_flea](/fit/bedeviler-qwen2-5-coder-0-5b-instruct-gensyn-swarm-fishy_camouflaged_flea)

Coding · bedeviler

Q8\_0Excellent

1.0 GB13% of RAM~73 tok/sEstimated0.49B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune dyn col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.9 r16\_20260418\_062801](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-dyn-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-9-r16_20260418_062801)

Reasoning · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune dyn hier col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.9 r16\_20260418\_063238](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-dyn-hier-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-9-r16_20260418_063238)

Reasoning · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llavaqwen2.5 0.5b finetune dyn col mask moe sparse 4e 2k sp0.9 r16\_20260420\_180515](/fit/kkhya-llavaqwen2-5-0-5b-finetune-dyn-col-mask-moe-sparse-4e-2k-sp0-9-r16_20260420_180515)

Reasoning · kkhya

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~72 tok/sEstimated0.5B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LLAMA 3.2 1B OpenHermes2.5](/fit/artificialguybr-llama-3-2-1b-openhermes2-5)

General · artificialguybr

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~29 tok/sEstimated1.24B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Qwen3 0.6B diffusion bd3lm v0.1](/fit/dllm-hub-qwen3-0-6b-diffusion-bd3lm-v0-1)

General · dllm-hub

Q8\_0Excellent

1.3 GB17% of RAM~48 tok/sEstimated0.75B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[SmolLM2 135M](/fit/huggingfacetb-smollm2-135m)

General · huggingfacetb

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB8% of RAM~275 tok/sEstimated0.13B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[mimi](/fit/kyutai-mimi)

General · kyutai

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB8% of RAM~357 tok/sEstimated0.1B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[SmolLM3 3B](/fit/huggingfacetb-smollm3-3b)

Reasoning · HuggingFace · 2025-07-08

Q8\_0Excellent

3.8 GB48% of RAM~12 tok/sEstimated3B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B](/fit/deepseek-ai-deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-1-5b)

Reasoning · DeepSeek

Q8\_0Excellent

2.5 GB31% of RAM~20 tok/sEstimated1.78B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[MinerU2.5 Pro 2604 1.2B](/fit/opendatalab-mineru2-5-pro-2604-1-2b)

Multimodal · opendatalab

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB22% of RAM~31 tok/sEstimated1.16B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[granite docling 258M](/fit/ibm-granite-granite-docling-258m)

General · ibm-granite

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~138 tok/sEstimated0.26B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[HunyuanOCR](/fit/tencent-hunyuanocr)

Multimodal · tencent

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAM~36 tok/sEstimated1B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[RadEvalModernBERT](/fit/iamjb-radevalmodernbert)

General · iamjb

Q8\_0Excellent

0.7 GB8% of RAM~238 tok/sEstimated0.15B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[KURE v1](/fit/nlpai-lab-kure-v1)

General · nlpai-lab

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB14% of RAM~63 tok/sEstimated0.57B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[OTel LLM 1B IT](/fit/farbodtavakkoli-otel-llm-1b-it)

General · farbodtavakkoli

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAM~36 tok/sEstimated1B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[nomic embed text v2 moe distilled high quality](/fit/cnmoro-nomic-embed-text-v2-moe-distilled-high-quality)

Embedding · cnmoro

Q8\_0Excellent

0.7 GB9% of RAM~188 tok/sEstimated0.19B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[plamo 2 1b](/fit/pfnet-plamo-2-1b)

General · pfnet

Q8\_0Excellent

1.9 GB24% of RAM~28 tok/sEstimated1.29B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[RNAElectra](/fit/freakingpotato-rnaelectra)

General · freakingpotato

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB7% of RAM~511 tok/sEstimated0.07B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Clinical\_ModernBERT](/fit/simonlee711-clinical_modernbert)

General · simonlee711

Q8\_0Excellent

0.7 GB8% of RAM~255 tok/sEstimated0.14B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Heron NVILA Lite 1B hf](/fit/turing-motors-heron-nvila-lite-1b-hf)

General · turing-motors

Q8\_0Excellent

1.5 GB19% of RAM~39 tok/sEstimated0.91B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[nanoLLaVA](/fit/qnguyen3-nanollava)

General · qnguyen3

Q8\_0Excellent

1.7 GB21% of RAM~34 tok/sEstimated1.05B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[LLaMmlein2Vec\_120M](/fit/lsx-uniwue-llammlein2vec_120m)

General · lsx-uniwue

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB8% of RAM~357 tok/sEstimated0.1B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[llama3 small](/fit/jdchang-llama3-small)

General · jdchang

Q8\_0Excellent

0.7 GB9% of RAM~199 tok/sEstimated0.18B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[InternVL3\_5 1B HF](/fit/opengvlab-internvl3_5-1b-hf)

General · opengvlab

Q8\_0Excellent

1.7 GB21% of RAM~34 tok/sEstimated1.06B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[CLASS\_IT 140M](/fit/colinglab-class_it-140m)

General · colinglab

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB8% of RAM~298 tok/sEstimated0.12B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Ovis2 1B hf](/fit/thisisiron-ovis2-1b-hf)

General · thisisiron

Q8\_0Excellent

1.8 GB22% of RAM~32 tok/sEstimated1.13B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Nemotron Flash 1B](/fit/nvidia-nemotron-flash-1b)

General · nvidia

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAMBenchmark needed0.97B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[yatnmn softplus d12 chinchilla 261M pytorch](/fit/mlnomad-yatnmn-softplus-d12-chinchilla-261m-pytorch)

General · mlnomad

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~138 tok/sEstimated0.26B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[yatnmn softplus sb d12 chinchilla 261M pytorch](/fit/mlnomad-yatnmn-softplus-sb-d12-chinchilla-261m-pytorch)

General · mlnomad

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~138 tok/sEstimated0.26B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[yatnmn softplus sb ca d12 chinchilla 261M pytorch](/fit/mlnomad-yatnmn-softplus-sb-ca-d12-chinchilla-261m-pytorch)

General · mlnomad

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~138 tok/sEstimated0.26B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[yatnmn softplus ca d12 chinchilla 261M pytorch](/fit/mlnomad-yatnmn-softplus-ca-d12-chinchilla-261m-pytorch)

General · mlnomad

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~138 tok/sEstimated0.26B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[MiniCPM V 4.6 Thinking](/fit/openbmb-minicpm-v-4-6-thinking)

General · openbmb

Q8\_0Excellent

2.0 GB24% of RAM~28 tok/sEstimated1.3B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Llama 3.3 Tiny Instruct boolq](/fit/alignmentresearch-llama-3-3-tiny-instruct-boolq)

Chat · alignmentresearch

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB7% of RAM~447 tok/sEstimated0.08B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[gelu d12 chinchilla 261M pytorch](/fit/mlnomad-gelu-d12-chinchilla-261m-pytorch)

General · mlnomad

Q8\_0Excellent

0.8 GB10% of RAM~138 tok/sEstimated0.26B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[MiniCPM V 4.6 Abliterated AND Disinhibited](/fit/treadon-minicpm-v-4-6-abliterated-and-disinhibited)

General · treadon

Q8\_0Excellent

2.0 GB24% of RAM~28 tok/sEstimated1.3B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[SmolVLM 500M Base](/fit/huggingfacetb-smolvlm-500m-base)

General · huggingfacetb

Q8\_0Excellent

1.1 GB13% of RAM~70 tok/sEstimated0.51B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[Falcon H1 Tiny 90M Instruct](/fit/tiiuae-falcon-h1-tiny-90m-instruct)

Chat · TII

Q8\_0Excellent

0.6 GB8% of RAM~397 tok/sEstimated0.09B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[experimental2](/fit/ba2han-experimental2)

General · ba2han

Q8\_0Excellent

1.2 GB14% of RAM~61 tok/sEstimated0.59B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

[gemma 3 1b it fixed](/fit/pjmixers-dev-gemma-3-1b-it-fixed)

General · pjmixers-dev

Q8\_0Excellent

1.6 GB20% of RAM~36 tok/sEstimated1B params

What Mac for this model? [Run with ToolPiper](/toolpiper)

Show more (3491 remaining)

## 7-core vs 8-core GPU

Both bins run the same 68.25 GB/s memory bus, so token generation is the same on either one. The extra cores show up in image and video work, not in tokens per second.

Configuration

Memory bandwidth

Memory options

Models that fit

8-core CPU, 7-core GPU

68.25 GB/s

8, 16 GB

Identical

8-core CPU, 8-core GPU

68.25 GB/s

8, 16 GB

Identical

## Measured on the M1

Nobody has submitted a benchmark on the M1 yet, so every speed on this page is the formula estimate rather than a measured run. The estimate is bandwidth-driven and calibrated against chips that do have data, which makes it a good guide and not a promise.

ToolPiper contributes a result anonymously when you run the benchmark, and the [leaderboard](/fit/benchmarks) shows every chip that already has one.

## Where to go from here

What each step actually changes for local models, rather than which one is newer.

[Newer generation

iMac M4

1.8x the memory bandwidth, up to 32 GB instead of 16 GB

](/imac/m4)[Same chip, other Mac

MacBook Air M1

The same chip in a different Mac

](/macbook-air/m1)[Same chip, other Mac

Mac mini M1

The same chip in a different Mac

](/mac-mini/m1)

## Why unified memory is the number that matters

On a PC the model has to fit in GPU VRAM, which is a separate pool from system RAM and usually the smaller of the two. Apple Silicon has one pool. The M1's 68.25 GB/s bus is shared by CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, so a 16 GB machine can hand almost all of that to a model with no copy across a bus.

Apple stopped selling this one, which is exactly why it is interesting. The iMac takes base M chips only, so unified memory is the number that decides what you can run on it. A used M1 at 16 GB still gives you 68.25 GB/s and a hard 20B ceiling, and neither number degrades with age the way a battery does.

## Common questions

### Can the M1 iMac run a 70B model?

No. A 70B model at Q4\_K\_M needs about 46 GB, and the largest M1 iMac tops out at 16 GB, which leaves about 14 GB for weights. The practical ceiling on this machine is around 20B parameters at Q4.

### How much unified memory should I get with the M1 iMac?

Memory is the only spec that changes what you can run at all. 8 GB holds about a 9B model at Q4; 16 GB holds about 20B. It is soldered, so this is a one-time decision, and it is the upgrade worth paying for before core count.

### How fast are local LLMs on the M1?

Token generation is bandwidth-bound, so M1 throughput scales with its 68.25 GB/s memory bus. Divide bandwidth by the size of the weights actually read per token to get the ceiling, then expect roughly half of that in practice. A 7B model at Q4 reads about 4 GB per token pass, so the M1 lands in the tens of tokens per second and a 70B model lands in the single digits.

### Is the 8-core GPU worth it over the 7-core on the M1?

Not for LLMs. Both bins run the same 68.25 GB/s memory bus and take the same memory options, and token generation is bound by bandwidth rather than GPU cores. The extra cores show up in image generation and video work, not in tokens per second.

### Is a used M1 iMac still worth buying for local AI?

For inference, the specs that matter do not age: 68.25 GB/s and up to 16 GB of unified memory are the same numbers today as they were in 2020. A used M1 at the top memory option usually beats a new base-tier machine at the same price on both. Check the battery and the display, not the silicon.

## Run these models on your iMac

ToolPiper downloads, manages, and runs local models on Apple Silicon. Free, and nothing leaves the machine.

[Get ToolPiper](/toolpiper)[Compare against another Mac](/fit?chip=m1&ram=8)

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#### Resources

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