Canonical Rankings

Best Macs for this model

Phi-4 14B ranked across the Mac lineup at the best practical quantization, using the best available runtime evidence.

Model

Quantization

Sort

Runtime

28 ranked MacsUse the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.Static paths cover only canonical model pages; sort and quantization stay as query state.

Rank	Mac	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Fits	Evidence	Price	Why it ranks here
1	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	292	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$7,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 241.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2	Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB	228	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$6,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 177.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	164	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 113.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch	164	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$5,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 113.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB	132	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 81.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6	Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB	100	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 49.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7	MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch	100	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 49.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8	Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB	84	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 33.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch	84	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 33.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10	Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB	84	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 33.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch	84	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 33.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch	84	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 33.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch	84	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 33.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14	Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB	72	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 21.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch	72	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 21.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch	72	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 21.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17	Mac Mini M4 32GB	68	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$799	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 17.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
18	MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch	68	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 17.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
19	MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch	68	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,699	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 17.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
20	Mac Mini M4 24GB	60	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 9.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
21	MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch	60	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,299	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 9.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
22	Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB	60	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,399	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 9.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
23	MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch	60	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 9.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
24	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch	60	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 9.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
25	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch	60	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 9.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
26	Mac Mini M4 16GB	48	Q6_K	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$499	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 3.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
27	MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch	48	Q6_K	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,099	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 3.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
28	MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch	48	Q6_K	Measure it	Best available	Fits	Fit-first	$1,299	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct measurement. 3.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization.

Phi-4 14B — ranking first, catalog record below

Start with the ranked Mac table above. Use the rest of this page to inspect raw Apple Silicon coverage and model metadata.

0Benchmark rows

0Chip tiers covered

—Fastest avg tok/s

—Minimum RAM observed

What this page answers best

Phi-4 14B is cataloged because Apple Silicon buyers are already searching for it. Phi-4 14B: 1 practitioner claim; 1 captured from fetched artifacts; hardware mentions: 64GB, M1 Max, M3 Ultra, M4; runtime mentions: Cline, llama.cpp, LM Studio, MLX; themes: apple_silicon_viability, coding_quality, fit_and_memory, model_comparison, operational_caution, runtime_tuning; includes operational caveats. Use the ranking above for the current best Mac path, then open Bench when direct evidence lands.

Evidence state: 1 practitioner signal tracked, but no published benchmark rows yet.

Need the best Mac for this model? Use Buy Need a setup-first answer? Use Run Checking whether it fits? Use Fit Browse Macs by exact hardware Need the full audit trail? Use Bench Comparing against rented GPUs? Use AI Datacenter Index

Catalog record

14BTotal params

DenseActive params

16,384Context window

2024-12-12Release date

No Apple Silicon benchmark rows are published for this model yet. It is kept visible here because it is part of the current frontier catalog.

What this model is, and what Apple Silicon users are actually seeing

Official model cards tell you what the model is for and which software stacks it targets. Field reality below shows how much Apple Silicon evidence we have so far.

Official brief

Generation of Harmful Content: Developers should assess outputs for their context and use available safety classifiers or custom solutions appropriate for their use case.

Official source · Raw model card

agentscodingreasoningvisual-understanding

Runtime support mentioned

Transformers

Official takeaways

Generation of Harmful Content: Developers should assess outputs for their context and use available safety classifiers or custom solutions appropriate for their use case.
Newly created synthetic, “textbook-like” data for the purpose of teaching math, coding, common sense reasoning, general knowledge of the world (science, daily activities, theory of mind, etc.).
We are focusing on the quality of data that could potentially improve the reasoning ability for the model, and we filter the publicly available documents to contain the correct level of knowledge.
Multilingual data constitutes about 8% of our overall data.

Official model cards describe intent, capabilities, and supported stacks. They do not prove Apple Silicon speed by themselves.

Field reality on Apple Silicon

Phi-4 14B: 1 practitioner claim; 1 captured from fetched artifacts; hardware mentions: 64GB, M1 Max, M3 Ultra, M4; runtime mentions: Cline, llama.cpp, LM Studio, MLX; themes: apple_silicon_viability, coding_quality, fit_and_memory, model_comparison, operational_caution, runtime_tuning; includes operational caveats.

0Benchmark rows

0Field reports

1Practitioner signals

No BenchmarksEvidence status

What practitioners keep saying

One operator explicitly cites running Phi-4 14B on an M4 mini as a reasonable local setup for the price and power draw.
The thread is useful because it frames Phi-4 as the practical smaller-model fallback when bigger Apple-Silicon dreams hit bandwidth limits.

Runtime mentions in the field

Clinellama.cppLM StudioMLXOllamaRoo Code

Hardware mentioned in reports

64GBM1 MaxM3 UltraM4MacMac MiniMacBook

What would improve confidence

Benchmark Current Apple Silicon Hot Model
Capture Practitioner Runtime Notes
Collect First Apple Silicon Benchmark
Queue Lab Verification If Hardware Available

Current published coverage

This page stays published because the model is in the frontier catalog, but Apple Silicon speed coverage is still missing.

Raw benchmark rows for Phi-4 14B

Rows stay below the ranking because this page is answer-first. Use them to inspect exact chips, quantizations, runtimes, and sources.

No benchmark rows are published yet for this model. The ranking above still shows the best current Mac fit path, but the benchmark section stays empty until direct Apple Silicon measurements land.

Data

benchmarks.json — full dataset · models.json — model summaries · benchmarks.csv — CSV export

See all models →