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Can the Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB) run Baichuan 2 7B Chat?

20Basic quality (D) · 20 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q8_0 it needs about 41.4 GB of 384 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 58.7 tok/s.

Best quant
Q8_0
Generation speed
58.7 tok/s
Prompt processing
2,345 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
0.4 s
Largest safe context
4K

Best app to run it on the Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

  • Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Baichuan 2 7B Chat in LM Studio

  • llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.
  • Ollama Runs the Hugging Face GGUF with ollama run hf.co/…

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download Baichuan 2 7B Chat

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

huggingface.co/mradermacher/Baichuan2-7B-Chat-i1-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/mradermacher/Baichuan2-7B-Chat-i1-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from Baichuan, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/baichuan-inc/Baichuan2-7B-Chat (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 3 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 20Basic quality (D) · 20 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at Q8_0, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs great
How well it runs on the Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.9.0 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.2.5 / 15
Match score51.5 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB)

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 36.5 GB 384 GB 189 tok/s Runs great 14Basic quality (D) · 14 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 48/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 37.1 GB 384 GB 149 tok/s Runs great 16Basic quality (D) · 16 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 49/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 38.0 GB 384 GB 115 tok/s Runs great 19Basic quality (D) · 19 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 50/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 38.8 GB 384 GB 95.2 tok/s Runs great 19Basic quality (D) · 19 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 39.6 GB 384 GB 80.0 tok/s Runs great 19Basic quality (D) · 19 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 41.4 GB 384 GB 58.7 tok/s Runs great 20Basic quality (D) · 20 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
F16 48.5 GB 384 GB 27.0 tok/s Runs well 20Basic quality (D) · 20 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 49/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 4K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

Quick answers

How much memory does Baichuan 2 7B Chat need on the M3 Ultra 512GB?

At Q8_0 it needs about 41.4 GB. The M3 Ultra 512GB has 384 GB usable.

How fast is Baichuan 2 7B Chat on the M3 Ultra 512GB?

About 58.7 tok/s at Q8_0, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Baichuan 2 7B Chat should I use on the M3 Ultra 512GB?

Q8_0. Of the versions that fit, it is the one that runs best; when two run equally well, the check prefers the higher-rated one.

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.

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