Can the Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Llama 4 Scout 17B-16E?
Yes
QuantQ6_KExcellent
Memory91.6 GBof 96 GB
Speed~24tokens/s
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Llama 4 Scout 17B-16E fully in unified memory at Q6_K (excellent), using about 91.6 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 24 tokens/second.
Try other context lengths in the calculator →Memory needed by quantization
At 8,192 tokens of context. macOS lets the GPU use about 96 GB of the 128 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 220.2 GB | Too big | — |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 118 GB | Too big | — |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 91.6 GB | Fits | ~24 tok/s |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 79.7 GB | Fits | ~27 tok/s |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 68.3 GB | Fits | ~32 tok/s |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 55.5 GB | Fits | ~39 tok/s |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 43.1 GB | Fits | ~51 tok/s |
How to run Llama 4 Scout 17B-16E on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts it:
ollama run llama4:scoutOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 68.3 GB here). You have room for Q6_K, which is excellent: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
GPUs that run Llama 4 Scout 17B-16E comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)
Run it in the cloud
Don't want to buy hardware? Run Llama 4 Scout 17B-16E on a rented GPU today.
Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, cancel any time.