Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 on Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB)

Can the Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB) run Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1?

80 pts

Yes, with little memory to spare

Tight fit. At Q4_K_M it needs about 175 GB of 192 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 3.4 tok/s.

Best quant: Q4_K_M
Generation speed: 3.4 tok/s
Prompt processing: 69.5 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 14.7 s
Largest safe context: 40K

Download Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Recommended for the Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB): Q4_K_M. 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 Q4_K_M files (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/unsloth/Llama-3_1-Nemotron-Ultra-253B-v1-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Llama-3_1-Nemotron-Ultra-253B-v1-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/nvidia/Llama-3_1-Nemotron-Ultra-253B-v1 (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

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

How the A 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.	36.8 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when everything sits in GPU or unified memory; fewer when part spills to system RAM.	24.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	4.4 / 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
Total	80.1 / 100	80 ptsGreat (A) · 80 of 100 points: Model quality 36.8/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 4.4/15, Memory use 15.0/15

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

Every quantization on the Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Fit	Grade · points	Download
`Q2_K`	122 GB	192 GB	5.6 tok/s	Runs well	72 ptsGreat (A) · 72 of 100 points: Model quality 27.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 5.6/15, Memory use 14.6/15	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	144 GB	192 GB	4.4 tok/s	Runs well	77 ptsGreat (A) · 77 of 100 points: Model quality 32.5/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 5.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	175 GB	192 GB	3.4 tok/s	Tight fit	80 ptsGreat (A) · 80 of 100 points: Model quality 36.8/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 4.4/15, Memory use 15.0/15	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	200 GB	192 GB	2.4 tok/s	Runs with offload	66 ptsGood (B) · 66 of 100 points: Model quality 37.5/45, Memory fit 10.0/25, Speed 3.7/15, Memory use 15.0/15	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	228 GB	192 GB	2.0 tok/s	Heavy offload	60 ptsGood (B) · 60 of 100 points: Model quality 38.3/45, Memory fit 4.0/25, Speed 3.4/15, Memory use 15.0/15	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	289 GB	192 GB	—	Won't run	11 ptsWon't run (F) · 11 of 100 points: Model quality 11.6/45, Memory fit 0.0/25, Speed 0.0/15, Memory use 0.0/15	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	527 GB	192 GB	—	Won't run	11 ptsWon't run (F) · 11 of 100 points: Model quality 11.6/45, Memory fit 0.0/25, Speed 0.0/15, Memory use 0.0/15	GGUF · folder (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

81 ptsGreat (A) · 81 of 100 points: Model quality 38.3/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 3.7/15, Memory use 14.6/15 Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB) Q6_K · 2.4 tok/s
76 ptsGreat (A) · 76 of 100 points: Model quality 32.5/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 4.9/15, Memory use 15.0/15 Apple M2 Ultra (192 GB) Q3_K_M · 4.3 tok/s
56 ptsUsable (C) · 56 of 100 points: Model quality 27.1/45, Memory fit 10.0/25, Speed 4.1/15, Memory use 15.0/15 NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q2_K · 3.0 tok/s
55 ptsUsable (C) · 55 of 100 points: Model quality 27.1/45, Memory fit 10.0/25, Speed 3.2/15, Memory use 15.0/15 NVIDIA GB10 (128 GB) Q2_K · 1.8 tok/s
50 ptsUsable (C) · 50 of 100 points: Model quality 27.1/45, Memory fit 4.0/25, Speed 4.2/15, Memory use 15.0/15 Apple M4 Max (128 GB) Q2_K · 3.2 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.