Granite 3.0 2B Instruct on Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB)

Can the Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB) run Granite 3.0 2B Instruct?

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At F16 it needs about 21.6 GB of 192 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 77.2 tok/s.

Best quant: F16
Generation speed: 77.2 tok/s
Prompt processing: 6,695 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 0.3 s
Largest safe context: 4K

Best app to run it on the Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB)

On macOS

Ollama

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp (ggml), MLX (Apple silicon, preview)

One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.
Serves an OpenAI-compatible API that other apps and coding tools can use.

ollama run granite3-dense:2b-instruct-fp16

LM Studio Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.
llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.

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 Granite 3.0 2B Instruct

Recommended for the Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB): F16. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run granite3-dense:2b-instruct-fp16

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the F16 file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/bartowski/granite-3.0-2b-instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/bartowski/granite-3.0-2b-instruct-GGUF:F16

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-3.0-2b-instruct (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at F16, 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 (256 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.	11.7 / 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.	2.6 / 15
Match score	54.3 / 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 (256 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	17.3 GB	192 GB	541 tok/s	Runs great	18Basic quality (D) · 18 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 50/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	17.6 GB	192 GB	426 tok/s	Runs great	21Basic quality (D) · 21 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (Q3_K_L) (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	17.9 GB	192 GB	329 tok/s	Runs great	24Basic quality (D) · 24 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	18.2 GB	192 GB	272 tok/s	Runs great	25Basic quality (D) · 25 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	18.5 GB	192 GB	228 tok/s	Runs great	25Basic quality (D) · 25 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	19.1 GB	192 GB	168 tok/s	Runs great	26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	21.6 GB	192 GB	77.2 tok/s	Runs great	26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab) 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

26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER F16 · 55.2 tok/s · Runs great
26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Q8_0 · 64.6 tok/s · Runs great
26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT F16 · 60.3 tok/s · Runs great
26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER F16 · 73.6 tok/s · Runs great
26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER F16 · 80.6 tok/s · Runs great
26Basic quality (D) · 26 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB F16 · 49.1 tok/s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does Granite 3.0 2B Instruct need on the M3 Ultra 256GB?

At F16 it needs about 21.6 GB. The M3 Ultra 256GB has 192 GB usable.

How fast is Granite 3.0 2B Instruct on the M3 Ultra 256GB?

About 77.2 tok/s at F16, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Granite 3.0 2B Instruct should I use on the M3 Ultra 256GB?

F16. 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.