Qwen3Guard Gen 8B on Apple M2 Ultra (64 GB)

Can the Apple M2 Ultra (64 GB) run Qwen3Guard Gen 8B?

Yes, it runs well

Runs well. At Q8_0 it needs about 13.4 GB of 48.0 GB usable and makes one decision in about 367 ms.

Best quant: Q8_0
Time per decision: 367 ms
Decisions per second: 2.7/s
Input assumed: 512 tokens
Returns: Fixed labels

Best app to run it on the Apple M2 Ultra (64 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX

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

Open Qwen3Guard Gen 8B 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 Qwen3Guard Gen 8B

Recommended for the Apple M2 Ultra (64 GB): Q8_0. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the Q8_0 file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/mradermacher/Qwen3Guard-Gen-8B-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/mradermacher/Qwen3Guard-Gen-8B-GGUF:Q8_0

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen3Guard-Gen-8B (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 86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (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 well: How well it runs on the Apple M2 Ultra (64 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.

PrecisionEditorial precision tier from the model’s published benchmarks, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	38.7 / 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
SpeedTime for one decision against a 100 ms target: reading the input plus any tokens the model writes.	7.8 / 15
ClarityHow easy the answer is to use in code: a probability or score earns the most, written feedback before a score the least.	12.0 / 15
Match score	83.5 / 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 M2 Ultra (64 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q4_K_M`	9.7 GB	48.0 GB	311 ms	Runs well	81Great quality (A) · 81 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	10.6 GB	48.0 GB	323 ms	Runs well	83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	11.5 GB	48.0 GB	336 ms	Runs well	85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	13.4 GB	48.0 GB	367 ms	Runs well	86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	21.1 GB	48.0 GB	500 ms	Slow	86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Times are for one request with a 512-token input and about 6 tokens written. Batching servers process many requests at once.

Other hardware that runs it

86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 90/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q8_0 · 94 ms · Runs great
86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 90/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Q8_0 · 103 ms · Runs great
85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q6_K · 129 ms · Runs great
85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q6_K · 132 ms · Runs great
85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 86/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Q6_K · 168 ms · Runs well
85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 86/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Q6_K · 178 ms · Runs well

Quick answers

How much memory does Qwen3Guard Gen 8B need on the M2 Ultra 64GB?

At Q8_0 it needs about 13.4 GB. The M2 Ultra 64GB has 48.0 GB usable.

How fast is Qwen3Guard Gen 8B on the M2 Ultra 64GB?

It makes one decision in about 367 ms at Q8_0, an estimate from the hardware and the size of the model.

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.