Can the Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Qwen3 8B?
- 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 8B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 18.2 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 20 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen3 8B:
ollama run qwen3:8bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 6.8 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 8B 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 | 18.2 GB | Fits | ~20 tok/s | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 10.5 GB | Fits | ~38 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 8.5 GB | Fits | ~49 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 7.6 GB | Fits | ~56 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 6.8 GB | Fits | ~66 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 5.8 GB | Fits | ~82 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 4.9 GB | Fits | ~107 tok/s |
GPUs that run Qwen3 8B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Qwen3 8B?
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Qwen3 8B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 18.2 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 20 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Qwen3 8B need?
About 6.8 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 18.2 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Qwen3 8B on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)?
Roughly 20 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M4 Max (128GB)'s 546 GB/s memory bandwidth.