Can the Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Qwen3 30B-A3B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Qwen3 30B-A3B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 33.8 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 68 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen3 30B-A3B:
ollama run qwen3:30bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 19.9 GB here). You have room for Q8_0, which is near-lossless: 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 Qwen3 30B-A3B in the cloud.
Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.
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.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 62.4 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 33.8 GB | Fits | ~68 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 26.4 GB | Fits | ~89 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 23.1 GB | Fits | ~102 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 19.9 GB | Fits | ~120 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 16.3 GB | Fits | ~149 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 12.8 GB | Fits | ~194 tok/s |
GPUs that run Qwen3 30B-A3B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Qwen3 30B-A3B?
Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Qwen3 30B-A3B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 33.8 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 68 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Qwen3 30B-A3B need?
About 19.9 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 62.4 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Qwen3 30B-A3B on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)?
Roughly 68 tokens per second at Q8_0, estimated from the Apple M3 Max (64GB)'s 400 GB/s memory bandwidth.