Outlier Core on Mac mini M4 Pro: runs, but the 24 GB base model sits exactly on the 24 GB minimum, so there is no spare memory. Minimum unified memory required: 24 GB. Disk size: 15.13 GB. Default context window: 32K tokens. On Mac mini M4 Pro the Outlier Core bandwidth-scaled estimate is ~7.1 tok/s [estimated from family-bandwidth ratio]; derivation: 20.7 tok/s on M1 Ultra × (273 / 800) bus ratio for the Apple M4 Pro. Treat as a first-order projection, the Outlier Core number on this 2024 machine has not been formally measured. The only real check of this method, Nano on a 16 GB M4 Air, ran about 3× faster than the 10.8 tok/s it projects, so read the figure as conservative.
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The pairing under examination is Outlier Core (15.13 GB MLX 4-bit, Qwen3.6-27B base, 32K default context, 24 GB unified memory minimum) on a Mac mini M4 Pro (Apple M4 Pro, 12-14 CPU cores, 16-20 GPU cores, 24, 48 or 64 GB unified memory, 273 GB/s, 2024). Outlier loads this tier as one mlx_lm process inside the bundled FastAPI sidecar. Apple Silicon decode on dense 4-bit weights is bandwidth-bound, so the figure on this exact Mac mini M4 Pro scales roughly as the ratio 273 / 800 = 0.34× of the published M1 Ultra number.
The Mac mini M4 Pro is a desktop with active cooling, which is the configuration that comes closest to holding the figure above through a sustained back-and-forth session. There is no battery to trade against and no lap to keep cool, so the limit on Outlier Core here is the 273 GB/s memory bus rather than the thermal envelope. This is the shape of machine to pick if the job runs unattended.
The tier catalog lists a peak generation footprint of about 16 GB for Outlier Core, for a short chat; a long agent session needs more. The rule of thumb is to leave roughly 4 GB for the OS and one open browser tab, so across the Mac mini M4 Pro memory options that leaves 24 GB → 4.0 GB free; 48 GB → 28.0 GB free; 64 GB → 44.0 GB free. On Mac mini M4 Pro the Outlier Core bandwidth-scaled estimate is ~7.1 tok/s [estimated from family-bandwidth ratio]; derivation: 20.7 tok/s on M1 Ultra × (273 / 800) bus ratio for the Apple M4 Pro. Treat as a first-order projection, the Outlier Core number on this 2024 machine has not been formally measured. The only real check of this method, Nano on a 16 GB M4 Air, ran about 3× faster than the 10.8 tok/s it projects, so read the figure as conservative.
The 2024 Mac mini M4 Pro ships with 24, 48 or 64 GB of unified memory. Headroom over the 24 GB Outlier Core minimum is 0 GB on the 24 GB base model. Step-by-step install instructions live on the install guide; the part that varies for this Apple M4 Pro machine is that the 15.13 GB pull from Outlier-Ai/Outlier-Core-27B-MLX-4bit over HTTPS lands in ~/Library/Application Support/Outlier/models/compact/ and download time is bandwidth-limited by the network, not by the 12-14-core Apple M4 Pro CPU.
The Outlier Core tier defaults to 32K context and caps at 128K on Pro. KV cache scales linearly with context length on dense models, so longer contexts trade headroom for capacity. On a 24 GB Mac mini M4 Pro, the default context is the safe starting point.
15.13 GB on disk against the 24 GB Mac mini M4 Pro (the smallest configuration that meets the 24 GB minimum) means the weights alone take about 63% of its memory.
For lighter-weight work on this Apple M4 Pro, the Quick tier is the next step down and runs visibly faster. For heavier work, the Vision 3.8 or Plus tier is the next step up; check that the memory configuration you have (24, 48 or 64 GB on this Mac) can fit its weights before installing. The unified-memory explainer works the bandwidth math out, and the bandwidth ratio for Mac mini M4 Pro is 0.34× M1 Ultra reference.
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