Can I Run Nemotron 70B on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?

Superseded model. Nemotron 70B has been superseded by Nemotron 3 Super. This page is kept for reference; the newer family is a better starting point. View Nemotron 3 Super →

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated October 15, 2024

Yes, but it is tight

Yes, but it is tight — Nemotron 70B Instruct at Q4_K_M needs about 46.1 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB), leaving only ~1.9 GB before the runtime starts swapping. Expect ~6.7 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 8,192 tokens of context.

Confidence: medium · Recommended quantization: Q4_K_M · Estimated speed: ~6.7 tok/s

Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB) — what it gives a model

Usable memory for models48 GB
Memory bandwidth546 GB/s
Form factorDesktop
Operating systemmacOS
Memory upgradeableNo — soldered

Nemotron 70B on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB): memory by quantization

QuantMemory neededFits 48 GB?Max contextEst. speedDownload
F16144.7 GB✗ No141.2 GB
Q8_078.5 GB✗ No75 GB
Q6_K61.4 GB✗ No57.9 GB
Q5_K_M53.5 GB✗ No50 GB
Q4_K_M46.1 GB✓ Yes8K~6.7 tok/s42.6 GB
Q3_K_M33.6 GB✓ Yes32K~9.3 tok/s30.1 GB
Q2_K26.7 GB✓ Yes64K~11.8 tok/s23.2 GB

What to watch out for

Mac Studio M4 Max 64 GB limitations

Recommended setup

Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput

How these numbers are calculated

FAQ

Can I run Nemotron 70B on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?

Yes, but it is tight — Nemotron 70B Instruct at Q4_K_M needs about 46.1 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB), leaving only ~1.9 GB before the runtime starts swapping. Expect ~6.7 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 8,192 tokens of context.

Which quantization of Nemotron 70B should I use on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?

Q4_K_M — it needs about 46.1 GB of the 48 GB available, downloads as roughly 42.6 GB, and runs at an estimated 6.7 tokens/sec with up to 8K of context.

What limits Nemotron 70B on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?

Nothing binding — the model fits with headroom and generates at a usable speed on this hardware.

Which runtime should I use?

Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput

Other Computers

Other Models on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)

Nemotron 70B on GPUs

What This Model Is Good At

Model & Tools

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