Rent a GPU

Can the Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Qwen2.5 7B?

Apple M3 Max (64GB) × Qwen2.5 7B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP1616.3 GB of 48 GB
Weights 15.2 GBKV cache 0.5 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Memory16.3 GBof 48 GB usable
Speed~16tokens per second
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Qwen2.5 7B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 16.3 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 16 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen2.5 7B:

ollama run qwen2.5:7b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 5.7 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M3 Max (64GB)

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M3 Max (64GB)? Run Qwen2.5 7B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Rent a GPU on RunPodRent a GPU on Vast.ai

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 48 GB the Apple M3 Max (64GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 48 GB of the 64 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality16.3 GBFits~16 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless9.2 GBFits~30 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent7.3 GBFits~38 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good6.5 GBFits~44 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular5.7 GBFits~52 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded4.8 GBFits~64 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded3.9 GBFits~84 tok/s

GPUs that run Qwen2.5 7B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Qwen2.5 7B?

Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Qwen2.5 7B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 16.3 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 16 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Qwen2.5 7B need?

About 5.7 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 16.3 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Qwen2.5 7B on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)?

Roughly 16 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M3 Max (64GB)'s 400 GB/s memory bandwidth.