Phi-3 Medium 14B

Phi — 14B params — Q4_K_M, local via Ollama. Dataset updated 2026-09-03.

PARAMETERS
14B
FORMAT
Q4_K_M
MIN MEMORY
16 GB
BEST FOR
Coding, Quality

Memory math

Weights (Q4_K_M)
11 GB
+ KV cache (16k)
~3.0 GB
Total at 16k
~14.0 GB
Comfortable from
24 GB

KV = fp16 estimate (q8_0 cache roughly halves it). "Comfortable" = weights + KV within the engine's tiered budget (~70-85% of memory).

Hardware snapshot

Cheapest GPU
~46 tok/s est. — ~$550 used
Fastest
~90 tok/s est.
Runs on a Mac?
~15 tok/s est.

More Phi models

Phi-3 Mini 3.8BPhi-4 Mini 3.8BPhi-4 14B

Frequently asked questions

How much memory does Phi-3 Medium 14B need?

11 GB for the Q4_K_M weights, plus ~3.0 GB of KV-cache at 16k context — about 14.0 GB total. Comfortable from 24 GB of VRAM or unified memory.

Does Phi-3 Medium 14B run on a Mac?

Yes — from the Mac Mini M6 16GB (~15 tok/s est.). Unified memory means the RAM budget is the only limit.

What is the cheapest GPU for Phi-3 Medium 14B?

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the cheapest tracked card that runs Phi-3 Medium 14B comfortably — ~46 tok/s est. at ~$550 used.

Cite this page

ModelFit: Phi-3 Medium 14B — specs, memory math and hardware verdicts.
https://modelfit.io/models/phi3-medium/ (dataset updated 2026-09-03, CC BY 4.0).