Hardware · Apple Silicon
What AI models can the Apple M3 Max (128 GB) run?
- Unified memory
- 128 GB
- Usable for models
- 96.0 GB
- Memory bandwidth
- 400 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 16.4 TFLOPS
- Released
- 2023
macOS lets the GPU use roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of unified memory by default, so we plan around that figure rather than the full 128 GB.
More about this hardware
| Maker | Apple Silicon |
|---|---|
| Type | Apple silicon (system on a chip) |
| Chip | Apple M3 Max |
Apps that run models well on the Apple M3 Max (128 GB)
2 products with the Apple M3 Max (128 GB)
Best LLMs for the Apple M3 Max (128 GB)
| Quality | Model | Quant | Memory | Speed | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 95/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Kolibri 1 (78B-A3.5B) | Q6_K | 72.5 GB | 64.9 tok/s | Runs great |
| 85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 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. | Qwen3 Coder Next (80B-A3B) | Q6_K | 73.8 GB | 72.3 tok/s | Runs great |
| 85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 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. | Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Thinking | Q6_K | 75.2 GB | 72.3 tok/s | Runs great |
| 93Excellent quality (A+) · 93 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Q8_0 | 46.6 GB | 56.4 tok/s | Runs great |
| 88Excellent quality (A+) · 88 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. | Ornith 1.5 122B-A10B | Q4_K_M | 84.8 GB | 37.0 tok/s | Runs welltight fit |
| 93Excellent quality (A+) · 93 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Q8_0 | 46.6 GB | 56.4 tok/s | Runs great |
| 93Excellent quality (A+) · 93 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 92/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B | Q8_0 | 45.8 GB | 56.4 tok/s | Runs great |
| 84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at MXFP4, whatever it runs on. Match score 92/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | gpt-oss 120B | MXFP4 | 75.2 GB | 68.3 tok/s | Runs great |
| 87Excellent quality (A+) · 87 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. | Qwen3.5 122B-A10B | Q4_K_M | 84.8 GB | 37.0 tok/s | Runs welltight fit |
| 90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 92/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Flint (40B-A2.5B) | Q8_0 | 50.7 GB | 64.9 tok/s | Runs great |
| 87Excellent quality (A+) · 87 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. | Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B | Q4_K_M | 54.0 GB | 40.6 tok/s | Runs great |
| 83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 92/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B Instruct | Q6_K | 75.2 GB | 72.3 tok/s | Runs great |
Best Image models for the Apple M3 Max (128 GB)
| Quality | Model | Quant | Memory | Speed | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91Excellent quality (A+) · 91 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | MiniMax H3 Image | FP8 | 72.0 GB | 57 s | Slow |
| 92Excellent quality (A+) · 92 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 84/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Krea 2 Turbo | FP16 | 37.4 GB | 27 s | Runs well |
| 92Excellent quality (A+) · 92 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Ideogram 4 | FP16 | 57.3 GB | 2.7 min | Very slow |
| 91Excellent quality (A+) · 91 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | FLUX.2 [dev] | Q8 GGUF | 61.9 GB | 4.4 min | Very slow |
| 90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Cosmos3-Super Text2Image (64B) | FP8 | 69.1 GB | 3.8 min | Very slow |
| 86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Ming-Image 0.1 Design | FP16 | 63.9 GB | 1.7 min | Slow |
Best Video models for the Apple M3 Max (128 GB)
| Quality | Model | Quant | Memory | Speed | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 84/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | LTX-2.5 (22B, video + audio) | FP8 | 48.3 GB | 8.7 min | Runs well |
| 89Excellent quality (A+) · 89 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | MiniMax H3 (33B, video + audio) | Q8 GGUF | 68.2 GB | 2.1 h | Very slow |
| 86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Wan 2.2 I2V A14B | FP16 | 58.0 GB | 2.8 h | Very slow |
| 86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Wan 2.2 T2V A14B | FP16 | 58.0 GB | 2.8 h | Very slow |
| 88Excellent quality (A+) · 88 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Kandinsky 6.0 Pro (29B, video + audio) | FP16 | 85.4 GB | 5.2 h | Very slowtight fit |
Best Decision models for the Apple M3 Max (128 GB)
| Quality | Model | Quant | Memory | Speed | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Jina Reranker v3.5 | F16 | 9.7 GB | 40 ms | Runs great |
| 84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 92/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Jina Reranker v3 | F16 | 9.7 GB | 40 ms | Runs great |
| 82Great quality (A) · 82 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | d1 3B | Q8_0 | 11.6 GB | 97 ms | Runs great |
| 82Great quality (A) · 82 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | mxbai-rerank-large v2 | F16 | 11.4 GB | 97 ms | Runs great |
| 80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | FRIDA-Decisions | F16 | 2.4 GB | 30 ms | Runs great |
| 80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | GLiNER2.5 Decide | F16 | 1.7 GB | 19 ms | Runs great |
| 80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Qwen3 Reranker 0.6B | F16 | 9.7 GB | 40 ms | Runs great |
| 80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | zerank-1 small | Q8_0 | 10.3 GB | 99 ms | Runs great |
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.