QwenQwen3-30B-A3B on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
M3 Pro (18GB Unified) cannot run Qwen3-30B-A3B. 18 GB VRAM is insufficient at any quantization level.
Model Size
30B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantization
Q4_K_M
Performance by Quantization
OwnRig currently has one published compatibility entry for Qwen3-30B-A3B on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) at Q4_K_M. This pairing has limitations — check the rating and notes below.
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 3 tok/s | 3000ms | ✗ Offload | Marginal | estimated |
Notes
Q4_K_M
Q4_K_M file is 18.6 GB which exceeds the 18 GB unified memory pool. Will require CPU offloading, severely limiting throughput. Use Q3_K_M (14.7 GB) for reliable use on this device.
About Qwen3-30B-A3B
Qwen3-30B-A3B (30B) is a chat, coding, ai coding, reasoning, multi-purpose model. Mixture-of-Experts architecture with ~3B active parameters per token and ~30B total; inference still loads the full expert pool for typical local stacks, so VRAM tracks total model size while compute per token stays efficient. High efficiency for its quality tier. Apache 2.0; 32K default and 128K max context.
View all Qwen3-30B-A3B 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 →Estimate method: Estimated from comparable model benchmarks. Reference hardware source: github.com (2026-03-14)
Performance varies by driver version, inference engine, quantization method, context length, and system configuration. Figures shown are estimates based on community benchmarks and may not reflect your exact setup. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners. OwnRig is independent and not affiliated with any hardware or AI model provider.