MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B) on Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB)

Can the Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB) run MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B)?

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q6_K it needs about 221 GB of 384 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 49.4 tok/s.

Best quant: Q6_K
Generation speed: 49.4 tok/s
Prompt processing: 1,761 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 0.6 s
Largest safe context: 192K

Best app to run it on the Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

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

Runs the MLX build, typically 20–35% faster than GGUF for a model with 10B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B) in LM Studio

MLX LM Runs the MLX build, typically 20–35% faster than GGUF for a model with 10B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Jan Runs the MLX build, typically 20–35% faster than GGUF for a model with 10B active parameters on Apple silicon.

Want an agent? MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B) supports tool use, so you can pair a llama.cpp or MLX LM server with one of these. Apps that run on this computer come first.

Coding agents

Personal assistants

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 MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B)

Recommended for the Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB): Q6_K. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Ollama

Ollama only offered this as a cloud model, and has since retired it. To run it locally, use the GGUF files below with llama.cpp or LM Studio.

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the Q6_K files (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/unsloth/MiniMax-M2.1-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/MiniMax-M2.1-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.1 (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from MiniMax. The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/MiniMax-AI/MiniMax-M2.1 (opens in a new tab)

git clone https://github.com/MiniMax-AI/MiniMax-M2.1

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

How it’s rated

Quality 90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q6_K, 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 M3 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.	40.5 / 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.	13.3 / 15
Match score	93.8 / 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 M3 Ultra (512 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	125 GB	384 GB	98.4 tok/s	Runs great	63Good quality (B) · 63 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	145 GB	384 GB	82.1 tok/s	Runs great	76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	173 GB	384 GB	67.0 tok/s	Runs great	86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	196 GB	384 GB	57.2 tok/s	Runs great	88Excellent quality (A+) · 88 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	221 GB	384 GB	49.4 tok/s	Runs great	90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	276 GB	384 GB	37.7 tok/s	Runs great	91Excellent quality (A+) · 91 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 95/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	491 GB	384 GB	—	Won't run	91Excellent quality (A+) · 91 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 12/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab) 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

86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB) Q4_K_M · 67.0 tok/s · Runs great
76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M2 Ultra (192 GB) Q3_K_M · 80.7 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
63Good quality (B) · 63 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GB10 (128 GB) Q2_K · 47.0 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
63Good quality (B) · 63 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (128 GB) Q2_K · 50.9 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
63Good quality (B) · 63 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (128 GB) Q2_K · 62.2 tok/s · Runs well (over GPU memory limit)
63Good quality (B) · 63 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q2_K · 122 tok/s · Runs well (offloads to RAM)

Quick answers

How much memory does MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B) need on the M3 Ultra 512GB?

At Q6_K it needs about 221 GB. The M3 Ultra 512GB has 384 GB usable.

How fast is MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B) on the M3 Ultra 512GB?

About 49.4 tok/s at Q6_K, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of MiniMax M2.1 (230B-A10B) should I use on the M3 Ultra 512GB?

Q6_K. 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.