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Can a M1 8GB run Qwen3 1.7B?

Yes. Qwen3 1.7B fits in fast memory on M1 8GB at Q8_0 (2.9 GB needed, 5.4 GB usable), about 25 tok/s (estimate).

Hardware: M1 8GB · Model: Qwen3 1.7B

M1 8GB has 8 GB of unified memory and 68 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The checker leaves macOS a share of unified memory, so Ollama can use 5.4 GB. Qwen3 1.7B (2.03B, Alibaba) at Q8_0 is a 2.2 GB download and needs 2.9 GB with headroom for about 8k tokens.

Best quantQ8_0
Download size2.2 GB
Memory needed2.9 GB
Usable fast memory5.4 GB
Fitfits in fast memory
Estimated speed~25 tok/s (estimate)
Commandollama run qwen3:1.7b-q8_0
Open M1 8GB in the checker

Estimates, not benchmarks. Model sizes are ollama.com download sizes; memory needed adds headroom for ~8k tokens of context; speeds are rough figures from memory bandwidth. Data updated 2026-10-23.

A project by OnDevice Labs · llms.txt