DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat on Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB)

Can the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB) run DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat?

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At F16 it needs about 63.0 GB of 384 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 80.4 tok/s.

Best quant: F16
Generation speed: 80.4 tok/s
Prompt processing: 9,739 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 0.3 s
Largest safe context: 160K

Best app to run it on the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX · use the MLX build

Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 2.4B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat in LM Studio

MLX LM Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 2.4B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Ollama One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat

Recommended for the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB): F16. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run deepseek-v2:16b-lite-chat-fp16

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

huggingface.co/mradermacher/DeepSeek-V2-Lite-Chat-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/mradermacher/DeepSeek-V2-Lite-Chat-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from DeepSeek, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V2-Lite-Chat (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 3 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at F16, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs great: How well it runs on the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	18.0 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.	25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	3.8 / 15
Match score	61.8 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	37.9 GB	384 GB	234 tok/s	Runs great	28Basic quality (D) · 28 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	39.3 GB	384 GB	213 tok/s	Runs great	33Basic quality (D) · 33 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 57/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	41.2 GB	384 GB	190 tok/s	Runs great	38Basic quality (D) · 38 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	42.7 GB	384 GB	173 tok/s	Runs great	38Basic quality (D) · 38 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	44.5 GB	384 GB	158 tok/s	Runs great	39Basic quality (D) · 39 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	48.2 GB	384 GB	133 tok/s	Runs great	40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	63.0 GB	384 GB	80.4 tok/s	Runs great	40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q8_0 · 118 tok/s · Runs great
40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (64 GB) F16 · 45.3 tok/s · Runs great
40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Q8_0 · 126 tok/s · Runs great
40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 73/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q8_0 · 131 tok/s · Runs great
38Basic quality (D) · 38 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Q5_K_M · 128 tok/s · Runs great
38Basic quality (D) · 38 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Pro (24 GB) Q5_K_M · 73.7 tok/s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat need on the M5 Ultra 512GB?

At F16 it needs about 63.0 GB. The M5 Ultra 512GB has 384 GB usable.

How fast is DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat on the M5 Ultra 512GB?

About 80.4 tok/s at F16, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat should I use on the M5 Ultra 512GB?

F16. Of the versions that fit, it is the one that runs best; when two run equally well, the check prefers the higher-rated one.

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.