[ Video ] Testing Apple Intelligence on my 16GB MacBook Pro

Description and use

Testing Apple Intelligence on a 16GB MacBook Pro using apfel demonstrated fast response times and code generation.

Problem

Evaluate the performance of Apple Intelligence (Apple Foundation Model) on a 16GB MacBook Pro.

Outcome

Apple Intelligence responded almost immediately to a factual query and produced a working Python script for a coding task, demonstrating fast performance on a 16GB MacBook Pro.

Workflow

• Enable Apple Intelligence on the MacBook Pro
• Install apfel via Homebrew
• Launch apfel’s local server or CLI
• Run a short factual query (e.g., “What is a dolphin?”)
• Run a coding task (generate a word‑count utility)
• Observe response time and output

Evidence

I used an open‑source tool apfel to get a normal chat interface:

Source

It installs easily (Homebrew) and it provides a CLI and an OpenAI‑compatible local server. No extra model download is needed.

Source

First, the short question “What is a dolphin?” The answer appeared almost immediately.

Second, the coding task: generate a small utility that counts words in files inside a folder. It defaulted to Python and produced a working script very quickly.

According to what I could find online, it is roughly a 3 billion parameter model. The space it occupies on disk is about 8 GB (Apple is opaque about the exact breakdown).

On newer hardware (M3 and later) Apple can use a larger on‑device variant that takes more space (up to around 12 GB).