Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (Nov 2023, M3 Pro): which AI models can it run?

Estimated from the specifications below. Choose the memory size you have or plan to buy, then read the table for that size.

Specifications

Brand

Apple

Year

2023

Chip

Apple M3 Pro

Processor

12-core CPU (6 performance, 6 efficiency)

Graphics

18-core GPU

Memory type

unified memory

Memory options

18 GB, 36 GB

Memory bandwidth

150 GB/s

Sources: https://support.apple.com/en-us/117737

Apple lists 150GB/s and 18GB base memory, with 36GB as the M3 Pro maximum.

With 18 GB of memory

About 12.6 GB of it can hold a model.

Models marked "thinks first" can write out their reasoning before they answer, so a job takes longer than the speed alone suggests.

With 36 GB of memory

About 25.2 GB of it can hold a model.

Models marked "thinks first" can write out their reasoning before they answer, so a job takes longer than the speed alone suggests.

Reported by others

Other people ran the standard llama-bench test on this chip and published the results. They are not Findra scores. The test uses a small 7-billion-parameter model, so larger models will be slower than these figures. All published benchmarks.

Reported by others, not tested by us. Results come from a public community thread; builds and settings differ between submitters.

Rendering speed (Blender Open Data)

Blender Open Data publishes the median render score of the Cycles test for each chip, from results people submitted. Higher is faster. These are not Findra scores; the table says what each score was rendered on. Scores from different Blender versions are not directly comparable.

Editing, gaming, CAD and other work

Each app below publishes a minimum and a recommended system requirement. We compare them with this laptop's memory and graphics memory. We do not judge the graphics chip's class, the processor generation or the operating system, because the makers describe those in words: check the source link for the exact card, processor and system they name. Many apps and games run only on Windows or only on macOS. Integrated graphics count as below any requirement for a dedicated card. Not known means the maker does not state this laptop's graphics memory.

Labels follow the makers' published lists. All use cases.

Speed is the speed of writing an answer, shown as a range. Reading speed is not estimated. How the estimates work · How close they are · Back to the finder