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Can a M3 8GB run SmolLM2 135M?

Yes. SmolLM2 135M fits in fast memory on M3 8GB at FP16 (0.9 GB needed, 5.4 GB usable), about 296 tok/s (estimate).

Hardware: M3 8GB · Model: SmolLM2 135M

M3 8GB has 8 GB of unified memory and 100 GB/s of memory bandwidth. M2 8GB has the same memory and bandwidth, so the fit numbers match; this page is M3 8GB. The checker leaves macOS a share of unified memory, so Ollama can use 5.4 GB. SmolLM2 135M (0.135B, HuggingFace) at FP16 is a 0.27 GB download and needs 0.9 GB with headroom for about 8k tokens.

Best quantFP16
Download size0.27 GB
Memory needed0.9 GB
Usable fast memory5.4 GB
Fitfits in fast memory
Estimated speed~296 tok/s (estimate)
Commandollama run smollm2:135m
Open M3 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