Can the Mac 16 GB run MiniMax H3 Pruned?
The smallest sensible file, Q4_K_M (11.6 GB), needs about 17.4 GB — 4.7 GB more than Mac 16 GB has. ComfyUI can still run it by streaming part of the model from system RAM. How much slower that is depends on your ComfyUI version, the file format and the PCIe link — see the note below.
01What to download
| Part | File | Folder | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | MiniMax-H3-FL2VA-Pruned-Q4_K_M.gguf Q4_K_M · Abiray/MiniMax-H3-Pruned-GGUF | models/unet | 11.6 GB | Download → |
| Text encoder | qwen3vl_32b_minimax_h3_bf16.safetensors Qwen3-VL 32B BF16 · Comfy-Org/MiniMax-H3 | models/text_encoders | 51.5 GB | Download → |
| VAE | minimax_h3_video_vae_fp16.safetensors MiniMax H3 video VAE FP16 · Comfy-Org/MiniMax-H3 | models/vae | 5.2 GB | Download → |
| Also needed | minimax_h3_audio_vae_fp32.safetensors MiniMax H3 audio VAE FP32 · Comfy-Org/MiniMax-H3 | models/vae | 0.6 GB | Download → |
| Total download · keep about the same free on disk | 68.9 GB | |||
On a Mac, FP8 text encoders do not load, so a 16-bit one is listed. Sizes read from Hugging Face (2026-09-25). “Download” links start the file directly; the file name links are the same files the official ComfyUI workflows use.
Shared memory: about 74.9 GB of your 16 GB. On this machine the model, the text encoder, the VAE and the operating system all use the same memory. That is about 58.9 GB more than there is. It still runs: while the model works, the system compresses or swaps the idle text encoder, so loading and changing the prompt get slower. A smaller file or text encoder avoids that. calculated
02Every MiniMax H3 Pruned file on 12.7 GB
| File | Size | Needed | On this card | Quality | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-bit SAFETENSORS · Comfy-Org | 40.2 GB | 46.0 GB | 33.3 GB too big | the original weights | Hugging Face → |
| Q8_0 GGUF · Abiray | 21.6 GB | 27.4 GB | 14.7 GB too big | practically identical to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q6_K GGUF · Abiray | 16.7 GB | 22.5 GB | 9.8 GB too big | very close to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q5_K_M GGUF · Abiray | 14.1 GB | 19.9 GB | 7.2 GB too big | close; small differences in fine detail | Hugging Face → |
| Q4_K_M ← GGUF · Abiray | 11.6 GB | 17.4 GB | 4.7 GB too big | good; some loss in fine detail and text | Hugging Face → |
| Q3_K_M GGUF · Abiray | 8.9 GB | 14.7 GB | 2.0 GB too big | noticeable loss of detail | Hugging Face → |
Sizes from the Hugging Face file listing, read 2026-09-25. “Needed” = file + 5 GB working memory for this model + 0.8 GB kept free for the system. FP8 and INT8 files are left out on a Mac: Apple GPUs cannot compute FP8, so ComfyUI either fails to load them or converts them back to 16-bit, which saves no memory. Use a 16-bit or GGUF file.
03The text encoder
Qwen3-VL 32B: 51.5 GB as 16-bit, 27.1 GB as INT8, 15.7 GB as NVFP4. ComfyUI encodes the prompt first and can push the encoder out of VRAM before sampling, so it does not have to fit together with the model. On 12.7 GB the encoder itself is too big for VRAM, so let it run from system RAM: slower prompt encoding, same images.
04About this GPU
A Mac with 16 GB shares that memory between the CPU and the GPU. On current macOS the GPU may use about 12.7 GB of it by default (older macOS versions: about 11.5 GB); that is the figure used here. ComfyUI can go past it, but macOS then starts compressing and swapping memory and everything slows down. ComfyUI runs on Apple GPUs through PyTorch's MPS backend. 16-bit and GGUF files work; FP8 and INT8 files do not save memory on a Mac, so they are skipped. Speed is the catch: even the fastest Macs are several times slower per image than a desktop RTX card. Chips sold with 16 GB: M1, M1 Pro, M2, M2 Pro, M3, M4, M5, M6 (memory bandwidth 68.25–200 GB/s — the higher, the faster). Everything about Macs and local AI →
Mac 16 GB: 16 GB unified · ~12.7 GB for the GPU · 68.25–200 GB/s · Apple Silicon. Everything that runs on the Mac 16 GB →
05What more VRAM would change
With 32 GB you could run MiniMax H3 Pruned at 8-bit or better (Q8_0, 21.6 GB) with no offloading: for example on the RTX 5090 32 GB.
06Measured and reported results
Nobody has sent measured numbers for this pair yet. If you run MiniMax H3 Pruned on a Mac 16 GB, send your time per image and peak VRAM and it will appear here, credited.
07Questions
How much VRAM does MiniMax H3 Pruned need?
Around 14.7 GB with the smallest file (Q3_K_M) and 26.8 GB with an 8-bit file (FP8), counting working memory and a small system reserve. The full 16-bit file needs about 46.0 GB.
Which MiniMax H3 Pruned file should I download for the Mac 16 GB?
Q4_K_M (11.6 GB) from Abiray/MiniMax-H3-Pruned-GGUF. Load it with Unet Loader (GGUF) from the ComfyUI-GGUF node pack.
Is FP8 faster than GGUF on the Mac 16 GB?
No. This GPU has no FP8 compute, so ComfyUI converts FP8 weights back before the maths. FP8 only saves memory here; Q8_0 GGUF is the closer-to-original 8-bit pick.
How much do I need to download for MiniMax H3 Pruned on the Mac 16 GB?
About 68.9 GB for the model file, text encoder and VAE listed on this page, and the same again free on disk. With a 12.7 GB card, 96 GB of system RAM or more is recommended.