Question 1

Can the Apple M3 run DEEPSEEK-R1 distill 7B?

Accepted Answer

DEEPSEEK-R1 distill 7B needs about 4.92GB working set (weights 4.7GB + KV cache 0.22GB at 4k context). The Apple M3 offers ~6GB usable — verdict: tight. 4.9 of 6 GB usable — keep context modest

Question 2

How fast is DEEPSEEK-R1 distill 7B on the Apple M3?

Accepted Answer

~17–21 tok/s on the Apple M3. computed roofline: 100 GB/s × 0.80–1.00 efficiency window / 4.7GB (Q4_K_M) — bands, never points.

Question 3

What should I run DEEPSEEK-R1 distill 7B on instead?

Accepted Answer

Tesla M60 (16GB, used) runs it fully ($35).

Can the Apple M3 run DEEPSEEK-R1 distill 7B?

Run DEEPSEEK-R1 distill 7B on instead