Can the Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Qwen3 14B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Qwen3 14B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 31.5 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 11 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen3 14B:
ollama run qwen3:14bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 10.9 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 M4 Max (128GB)
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M4 Max (128GB)? Run Qwen3 14B 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 96 GB the Apple M4 Max (128GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 96 GB of the 128 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 31.5 GB | Fits | ~11 tok/s | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 17.7 GB | Fits | ~21 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 14.1 GB | Fits | ~27 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 12.5 GB | Fits | ~31 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 10.9 GB | Fits | ~37 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 9.2 GB | Fits | ~45 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 7.5 GB | Fits | ~59 tok/s |
GPUs that run Qwen3 14B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Qwen3 14B?
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Qwen3 14B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 31.5 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 11 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Qwen3 14B need?
About 10.9 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 31.5 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Qwen3 14B on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)?
Roughly 11 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M4 Max (128GB)'s 546 GB/s memory bandwidth.