FLUX.1 Dev on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) cannot run FLUX.1 Dev at any quantization level. The 18 GB of VRAM is insufficient.
Model Size
12B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows FLUX.1 Dev performance at a different quality level on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified).
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | — | — | ✗ Offload | Not Viable | estimated |
Notes
Q4_K_M
12B model. Q4 7.2GB fits but 14GB effective + image overhead. Not viable.
About FLUX.1 Dev
FLUX.1 Dev (12B) is a image gen model. State-of-the-art image generation. Significantly better prompt adherence and image quality than SDXL. 12B parameter transformer model (not diffusion UNet). FP16 requires 24GB VRAM, but Q4 quantization brings it to 8GB GPUs. Non-commercial license.
View all FLUX.1 Dev hardware options →About Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) has 18 GB at 150 GB/s. Available in MacBook Pro 14", MacBook Pro 16".
See all models Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) can run →Source: MLX performance estimates (2026-03-15)
Data last updated: 2026-03-01