StarCoder 2 15B on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) can run StarCoder 2 15B at 4 tok/s at Q3_K_M, though performance is marginal. Consider a higher-end GPU for better results.
Model Size
15.5B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows StarCoder 2 15B performance at a different quality level on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified).
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3_K_M | 4 tok/s | 1700ms | ✓ Yes | Marginal | estimated |
Notes
Q3_K_M
Fits at Q3. Very slow. Marginal for code completion.
About StarCoder 2 15B
StarCoder 2 15B (15.5B) is a coding, ai coding model. Trained on The Stack v2 with 619 programming languages. Strong fill-in-the-middle (FIM) support for code completion. BigCode's best model — competitive but surpassed by Qwen 2.5 Coder on most benchmarks.
View all StarCoder 2 15B 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