Hermes 3 (Llama 3.1 70B) on Apple M2 (8 GB)

Can the Apple M2 (8 GB) run Hermes 3 (Llama 3.1 70B)?

No, it doesn’t fit

No. Hermes 3 (Llama 3.1 70B) needs about 31.9 GB even at Q2_K; the Apple M2 (8 GB) has 5.4 GB usable.

Download Hermes 3 (Llama 3.1 70B)

Recommended: Q2_K. 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 hermes3:70b-llama3.1-q2_K

Quantized files · GGUF

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

huggingface.co/NousResearch/Hermes-3-Llama-3.1-70B-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/NousResearch/Hermes-3-Llama-3.1-70B-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/NousResearch/Hermes-3-Llama-3.1-70B (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 2 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 6/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q2_K, 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 Won't run: How well it runs on the Apple M2 (8 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.	6.4 / 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.	0.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	0.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	0.0 / 15
Match score	6.4 / 100

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

It doesn’t fit, so only a reduced share of the quality points counts and fit, speed and memory use score zero.

Every quantization on the Apple M2 (8 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	31.9 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 6/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
`Q3_K_M`	38.3 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 7/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	46.7 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 8/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	53.8 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	65Good quality (B) · 65 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 8/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	61.6 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	67Good quality (B) · 67 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
`Q8_0`	78.5 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
`F16`	145 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Hardware that can run it

64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q4_K_M · 31.2 tok/s · Runs great
57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (64 GB) Q3_K_M · 10.6 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M2 Ultra (192 GB) Q4_K_M · 12.0 tok/s · Runs well
64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB) Q4_K_M · 12.3 tok/s · Runs well
57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (128 GB) Q3_K_M · 10.6 tok/s · Runs well
64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 67/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB) Q4_K_M · 12.3 tok/s · Runs well

Models that do run on the Apple M2 (8 GB)

58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 81/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Gemma 4 E2B Q4_K_M · 46.0 tok/s
64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 81/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nemotron Labs Dory 1.0 4B Q4_K_M · 26.6 tok/s
62Good quality (B) · 62 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Spark-X2.6 4B Q4_K_M · 25.7 tok/s
64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nanbeige4.2 3B Q4_K_M · 25.3 tok/s
58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B Q3_K_M · 30.4 tok/s

Quick answers

How much memory does Hermes 3 (Llama 3.1 70B) need on the M2 8GB?

Even at Q2_K it needs about 31.9 GB; the M2 8GB has 5.4 GB usable.

What can the M2 8GB run instead?

Gemma 4 E2B, Nemotron Labs Dory 1.0 4B and Spark-X2.6 4B run best on it; the page lists more, each with its speed.

What hardware can run Hermes 3 (Llama 3.1 70B)?

NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96GB, M4 Max 64GB and M2 Ultra 192GB run it; the page lists more, each with its speed.

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.