Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B on Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB)

Can the Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB) run Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B?

Yes, it runs well (over GPU memory limit)

Runs well (over GPU memory limit). At Q2_K it needs about 210 GB of 192 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 42.7 tok/s.

Best quant: Q2_K
Generation speed: 42.7 tok/s
Prompt processing: 668 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 1.5 s
Largest safe context: —

Best app to run it on the Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

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

Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B in LM Studio

Ollama Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.
llama.cpp Splits the model between GPU memory and system RAM, which this setup needs.

Want an agent? Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B 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 Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B

Recommended for the Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB): Q2_K. 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 qwen3-coder:480b

Quantized files · GGUF

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

Download the Q2_K files (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B-Instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B-Instruct-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B-Instruct (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Official repo · GitHub

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

github.com/QwenLM/Qwen3-Coder (opens in a new tab)

Qwen’s coder repo, renamed from Qwen2.5-Coder to Qwen3-Coder.

git clone https://github.com/QwenLM/Qwen3-Coder

Links checked 2 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 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.: How capable the model itself is at Q2_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 wellover GPU memory limit: How well it runs on the Apple M5 Ultra (256 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.	28.7 / 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.	10.0 / 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.	15.0 / 15
Match score	68.7 / 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 (256 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	210 GB	192 GB	42.7 tok/s	Runs wellover 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.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	253 GB	192 GB	—	Won't run	76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 10/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	311 GB	192 GB	—	Won't run	86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 11/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	359 GB	192 GB	—	Won't run	88Excellent quality (A+) · 88 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 11/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	412 GB	192 GB	—	Won't run	90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 12/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	527 GB	192 GB	—	Won't run	91Excellent quality (A+) · 91 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 12/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	978 GB	192 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 90/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB) Q4_K_M · 22.8 tok/s · Runs well
63Good quality (B) · 63 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB) Q2_K · 30.6 tok/s · Runs well (over GPU memory limit)
86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 92/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB) Q4_K_M · 32.3 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. AMD Instinct MI325X Q3_K_M · 133 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
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. AMD Instinct MI350X Q3_K_M · 155 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
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. NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip Q3_K_M · 158 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)

Quick answers

How much memory does Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B need on the M5 Ultra 256GB?

At Q2_K it needs about 210 GB. The M5 Ultra 256GB has 192 GB usable.

How fast is Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B on the M5 Ultra 256GB?

About 42.7 tok/s at Q2_K, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Qwen3 Coder 480B-A35B should I use on the M5 Ultra 256GB?

Q2_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.