HomeCan I run it?Phi-4Phi-4 on a Mac mini 16GB
Yes, but it is tight. Phi-4 at Q4_K_M needs about 11.2 GB, and the Mac mini M6 16GB has 12.0 GB usable at a ~4k context.
Can I run Phi-4 on a Mac mini 16GB?
Phi-4 at Q4_K_M needs about 11.2 GB, and the Mac mini M6 16GB has 12.0 GB usable. That figure is 16 GB of unified memory on the spec sheet, of which 12.0 GB is usable for weights and cache, at 153 GB/s memory bandwidth. Microsoft’s Phi-4, a dense 14B-class model often compared with other 12B–14B instruct weights. These are estimates from our formula, not measured benchmarks.
- Quant that fits
- Q4_K_M Fits, short context only
- Memory needed
- 11.2 GB at Q4_K_M, ~4k context
- Usable unified memory
- 12.0 GB of 16 GB unified memory
- Est. tokens/sec
- 8–14 estimate
Memory at each quant
| Quant | Need vs 12.0 GB | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 11.2 GB | Q4Tight |
| Q8_0 | 18.9 GB | Q8Won’t fit |
| FP16 | 34.7 GB | FP16Won’t fit |
Estimated tokens per second
Estimate: 8–14 tokens/sec at Q4_K_M. This is a bandwidth-derived range, not a bench. Efficiency is a 45–80% unified-memory band from How we calculate.
Context headroom
At Q4_K_M, this machine has headroom out to about 4k tokens under our KV estimate. Longer chats need more memory for the cache. Figures assume an FP16 KV cache.
| Context | KV cache (FP16) | Total at Q4_K_M | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4k | 0.8 GB | 11.2 GB | Tight |
| 8k | 1.7 GB | 12.1 GB | Won’t fit |
| 16k | 3.4 GB | 13.7 GB | Won’t fit |
| 32k | 6.7 GB | 17.1 GB | Won’t fit |
| 64k | 13.4 GB | 23.8 GB | Won’t fit |
| 128k | 26.8 GB | 37.2 GB | Won’t fit |
What to do instead
- Run Gemma 3 12B instead (9.5 GB at Q4). It is a different model, not a drop-in, but it does fit this machine.
- Q8_0 needs 18.9 GB and does not fit here. The Radeon RX 7900 XT has 20.0 GB usable, enough for Q8.
- Full hardware list: phi-4. Specs for this machine: Mac mini M6 16GB.
Other hardware for Phi-4
- Phi-4 on an RTX 3060 12GBTight
- Phi-4 on an RTX 3070 TiWon’t fit
- Phi-4 on an RTX 3080Won’t fit
- Phi-4 on an RTX 4060 Ti 16GBFits
- Phi-4 on an RTX 4070 Ti SuperFits
- Phi-4 on an RTX 4090Fits
Other models on a Mac mini 16GB
- Qwen3-32B on a Mac mini 16GBWon’t fit
- Qwen3-30B-A3B on a Mac mini 16GBWon’t fit
- Qwen3.8-27B on a Mac mini 16GBWon’t fit
- Gemma 3 27B on a Mac mini 16GBWon’t fit
- Gemma 4 31B on a Mac mini 16GBWon’t fit
- gpt-oss-20b on a Mac mini 16GBWon’t fit
Quick answers
- Can I run Phi-4 on a Mac mini 16GB?
- Yes, but it is tight. Phi-4 at Q4_K_M needs about 11.2 GB, and the Mac mini M6 16GB has 12.0 GB usable.
- How much VRAM does Phi-4 need?
- About 11.2 GB at Q4_K_M, 18.9 GB at Q8_0 and 34.7 GB at FP16, estimated for a ~4k context.
- How fast is Phi-4 on a Mac mini 16GB?
- Our estimate is 8–14 tokens per second at Q4_K_M. It is not a measured benchmark.
- What context length can I use?
- At Q4_K_M, our KV estimate supports up to about 4k tokens before the cache pushes the total over usable memory.