Dolphin 2.9 Llama 3 8B on Apple M5 Max (64 GB)

Can the Apple M5 Max (64 GB) run Dolphin 2.9 Llama 3 8B?

63 pts

Yes, it runs well

Runs well. At Q8_0 it needs about 14.0 GB of 48.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 41.1 tok/s.

Best quant: Q8_0
Generation speed: 41.1 tok/s
Prompt processing: 1,459 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 0.7 s
Largest safe context: 8K

Download Dolphin 2.9 Llama 3 8B

Recommended for the Apple M5 Max (64 GB): Q8_0. 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.

ollama run dolphin-llama3:8b-v2.9-q8_0

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

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/dphn/dolphin-2.9-llama3-8b-gguf (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/dphn/dolphin-2.9-llama3-8b-gguf:Q8_0

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/dphn/dolphin-2.9-llama3-8b (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 7 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How the B grade is scored

Every result gets up to 100 points from four parts. The points decide the letter grade.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	17.1 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when everything sits in GPU or unified memory; fewer when part spills to system RAM.	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.	6.7 / 15
Total	63.8 / 100	63 ptsGood (B) · 63 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 6.7/15

Grade scale: S 85+ · A 72+ · B 58+ · C 42+ · D 25+ · F under 25 points.

Every quantization on the Apple M5 Max (64 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Fit	Grade · points	Download
`Q2_K`	8.7 GB	48.0 GB	133 tok/s	Runs well	56 ptsUsable (C) · 56 of 100 points: Model quality 12.0/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 4.2/15
`Q3_K_M`	9.4 GB	48.0 GB	104 tok/s	Runs well	58 ptsGood (B) · 58 of 100 points: Model quality 14.4/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 4.5/15	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	10.4 GB	48.0 GB	80.8 tok/s	Runs well	61 ptsGood (B) · 61 of 100 points: Model quality 16.2/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 5.0/15	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	11.2 GB	48.0 GB	66.8 tok/s	Runs well	61 ptsGood (B) · 61 of 100 points: Model quality 16.6/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 5.4/15	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	12.1 GB	48.0 GB	56.1 tok/s	Runs well	62 ptsGood (B) · 62 of 100 points: Model quality 16.9/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 5.8/15	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	14.0 GB	48.0 GB	41.1 tok/s	Runs well	63 ptsGood (B) · 63 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 6.7/15	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	21.6 GB	48.0 GB	19.0 tok/s	Runs well	62 ptsGood (B) · 62 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 10.3/15, Memory use 10.4/15	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

72 ptsGreat (A) · 72 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15 AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Q8_0 · 42.9 tok/s
72 ptsGreat (A) · 72 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Q8_0 · 52.3 tok/s
72 ptsGreat (A) · 72 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Q8_0 · 57.3 tok/s
72 ptsGreat (A) · 72 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Q8_0 · 69.7 tok/s
72 ptsGreat (A) · 72 of 100 points: Model quality 17.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Q8_0 · 74.7 tok/s
71 ptsGood (B) · 71 of 100 points: Model quality 16.9/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Q6_K · 53.5 tok/s

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.