Phi-3 Mini 3.8B Instruct on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) handles Phi-3 Mini 3.8B Instruct well at 32 tok/s at Q8_0. A solid choice for this model.
Model Size
3.82B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows Phi-3 Mini 3.8B Instruct performance at a different quality level on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified).
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 | 32 tok/s | 250ms | ✓ Yes | Good | estimated |
Notes
Q8_0
Slower than M4 Pro. Acceptable for everyday use.
About Phi-3 Mini 3.8B Instruct
Phi-3 Mini 3.8B Instruct (3.82B) is a chat, coding, reasoning model. Punches above its weight — a 3.8B model that rivals many 7B models on reasoning benchmarks. MIT license. Excellent for resource-constrained setups or as a fast secondary model.
View all Phi-3 Mini 3.8B Instruct 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