Phi-3 Mini 3.8B
Phi-3 Mini 3.8B loads in 3.2 GB at Q4_K_M, comfortably from 8 GB of memory, Macs included, starting at the Mac Mini M6 16GB. Below is the memory math we ran for it, the smallest card that fits, and the fastest machine we track.
How much memory does Phi-3 Mini 3.8B need?
Phi-3 Mini 3.8B is a 3.8B dense model built for coding, chat. The weights alone take 3.2 GB at Q4_K_M; add context and the OS, and it belongs in the 8 GB memory class. Every number below comes from the ModelFit engine: speeds are estimates, labeled est., because we do not benchmark hardware ourselves.
KV = fp16 estimate (q8_0 cache roughly halves it). "Comfortable" = weights + KV within the engine's tiered budget (~70-85% of memory).
Which machines run Phi-3 Mini 3.8B?
Verdicts come from the same engine that powers our fit checker: memory capacity first, bandwidth for speed. How we compute these numbers · Hugging Face model card
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Frequently asked questions
How much memory does Phi-3 Mini 3.8B need?
3.2 GB for the Q4_K_M weights, plus ~1.8 GB of KV-cache at 16k context, about 5.0 GB total. Comfortable from 8 GB of VRAM or unified memory.
Does Phi-3 Mini 3.8B run on a Mac?
Yes, from the Mac Mini M6 16GB (~59 tok/s est.). Unified memory means the RAM budget is the only limit.
What is the smallest GPU for Phi-3 Mini 3.8B?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (8 GB VRAM) is the smallest tracked card that runs Phi-3 Mini 3.8B comfortably, ~57 tok/s est.
Cite this page
ModelFit: Phi-3 Mini 3.8B, specs, memory math and hardware verdicts. https://modelfit.io/models/phi3-mini/ (dataset updated 2026-10-13, CC BY 4.0).