Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct on Apple M1 (16 GB)

Can the Apple M1 (16 GB) run Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct?

Yes, it runs well

Runs well. At Q2_K it needs about 3.7 GB of 10.7 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 28.3 tok/s.

Best quant: Q2_K
Generation speed: 28.3 tok/s
Prompt processing: 385 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 2.7 s
Largest safe context: 4K

Best app to run it on the Apple M1 (16 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

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

Runs the MLX build, typically 20–35% faster than GGUF for a model with 4.2B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct in LM Studio

Ollama One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.
MLX LM Runs the MLX build, typically 20–35% faster than GGUF for a model with 4.2B 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 Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct

Recommended for the Apple M1 (16 GB): 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 nemotron-mini:4b-instruct-q2_K

Quantized files · GGUF

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

huggingface.co/bartowski/Nemotron-Mini-4B-Instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/bartowski/Nemotron-Mini-4B-Instruct-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/nvidia/Nemotron-Mini-4B-Instruct (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 15Basic quality (D) · 15 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 52/100 (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 Runs well: How well it runs on the Apple M1 (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.	6.9 / 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.	12.6 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	7.9 / 15
Match score	52.4 / 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 M1 (16 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	3.7 GB	10.7 GB	28.3 tok/s	Runs well	15Basic quality (D) · 15 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 52/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
`Q3_K_M`	4.0 GB	10.7 GB	22.3 tok/s	Runs well	18Basic quality (D) · 18 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (Q3_K_L) (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	4.6 GB	10.7 GB	17.2 tok/s	Runs well	20Basic quality (D) · 20 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	5.0 GB	10.7 GB	14.2 tok/s	Runs well	21Basic quality (D) · 21 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	5.4 GB	10.7 GB	11.9 tok/s	Runs well	21Basic quality (D) · 21 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	6.4 GB	10.7 GB	8.8 tok/s	Slow	22Basic quality (D) · 22 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 55/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	10.4 GB	10.7 GB	4.0 tok/s	Slowtight fit	22Basic quality (D) · 22 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 53/100 (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

22Basic quality (D) · 22 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Q8_0 · 40.6 tok/s · Runs great
22Basic quality (D) · 22 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 Ti SUPER F16 · 46.2 tok/s · Runs great
22Basic quality (D) · 22 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 4080 SUPER F16 · 50.6 tok/s · Runs great
22Basic quality (D) · 22 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 5070 Ti F16 · 61.6 tok/s · Runs great
22Basic quality (D) · 22 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 5080 F16 · 66.0 tok/s · Runs great
22Basic quality (D) · 22 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Intel Arc B580 Q8_0 · 52.0 tok/s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct need on the M1 16GB?

At Q2_K it needs about 3.7 GB. The M1 16GB has 10.7 GB usable.

How fast is Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct on the M1 16GB?

About 28.3 tok/s at Q2_K, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct should I use on the M1 16GB?

Q2_K. 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.