OpenAIWhisper Large V3 Turbo on Apple M1 Pro (16GB Unified)
Yes — M1 Pro (16GB Unified) handles Whisper Large V3 Turbo well at FP16 — 521ms first response. Solid daily-driver performance on 16 GB VRAM.
Model Size
810M
Device VRAM
16 GB
Bandwidth
200 GB/s
Quantization
FP16
Performance by Quantization
OwnRig currently has one published compatibility entry for Whisper Large V3 Turbo on Apple M1 Pro (16GB Unified) at FP16. This is the best supported pairing we can stand behind today.
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | – | 521ms | ✓ Yes | Good | estimated |
Notes
FP16
Conservative estimate anchored to existing Apple Silicon results. Memory bandwidth and quantization size are the primary inference limiters.
About Whisper Large V3 Turbo
Whisper Large V3 Turbo (810M) is a transcription model. Distilled version of Whisper Large V3. 8x faster than the full model with minimal quality loss. The go-to for real-time transcription on local hardware. Runs comfortably on any GPU with 2GB+ VRAM.
View all Whisper Large V3 Turbo hardware options →About Apple M1 Pro (16GB Unified)
Apple M1 Pro (16GB Unified) has 16 GB at 200 GB/s. Available in MacBook Pro 14" (2021), MacBook Pro 16" (2021).
See all models Apple M1 Pro (16GB Unified) can run →Estimate method: Conservative estimate anchored to m4-16gb with bandwidth scaling, quantization-size adjustment, and generation damping. Reference hardware source: github.com (2026-04-18)
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.