Ling Mini 2.0 (16B-A1.4B) on Apple M3 (16 GB)

Can the Apple M3 (16 GB) run Ling Mini 2.0 (16B-A1.4B)?

Yes, it runs well (tight fit)

Runs well (tight fit). At Q3_K_M it needs about 9.8 GB of 10.7 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 74.2 tok/s.

Best quant: Q3_K_M
Generation speed: 74.2 tok/s
Prompt processing: 1,816 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 0.6 s
Largest safe context: 30K

Best app to run it on the Apple M3 (16 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX · use the MLX build

Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 1.4B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Ling Mini 2.0 (16B-A1.4B) in LM Studio

MLX LM Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 1.4B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Unsloth Desktop Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 1.4B active parameters on Apple silicon.

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 Ling Mini 2.0 (16B-A1.4B)

Quantized files · GGUF

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

huggingface.co/inclusionAI/Ling-mini-2.0-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/inclusionAI/Ling-mini-2.0-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from Ant Group (inclusionAI), for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/inclusionAI/Ling-mini-2.0 (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from Ant Group (inclusionAI). The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/inclusionAI/Ling-V2 (opens in a new tab)

git clone https://github.com/inclusionAI/Ling-V2

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

How it’s rated

Quality 43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q3_K_M, 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 welltight fit: How well it runs on the Apple M3 (16 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.	19.7 / 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.	24.0 / 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.	15.0 / 15
Match score	73.7 / 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 (16 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	8.3 GB	10.7 GB	89.4 tok/s	Runs great	36Basic quality (D) · 36 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	9.8 GB	10.7 GB	74.2 tok/s	Runs welltight fit	43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	11.7 GB	10.7 GB	51.2 tok/s	Runs wellover GPU memory limit	49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	13.3 GB	10.7 GB	43.5 tok/s	Slowfar over GPU memory limit	50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	15.1 GB	10.7 GB	—	Won't run	51Fair quality (C) · 51 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 6/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	19.0 GB	10.7 GB	—	Won't run	52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 7/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	34.3 GB	10.7 GB	—	Won't run	52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 7/100 (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 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q8_0 · 154 tok/s · Runs great
52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M1 Max (64 GB) F16 · 54.1 tok/s · Runs great
52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (64 GB) F16 · 68.0 tok/s · Runs great
52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Q8_0 · 161 tok/s · Runs great
52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q8_0 · 166 tok/s · Runs great
50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Q5_K_M · 167 tok/s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does Ling Mini 2.0 (16B-A1.4B) need on the M3 16GB?

At Q3_K_M it needs about 9.8 GB. The M3 16GB has 10.7 GB usable.

How fast is Ling Mini 2.0 (16B-A1.4B) on the M3 16GB?

About 74.2 tok/s at Q3_K_M, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Ling Mini 2.0 (16B-A1.4B) should I use on the M3 16GB?

Q3_K_M. 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.