Can I Run Phi-4 Family on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?
Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated January 6, 2025
Yes — comfortably
Yes, comfortably — Phi-4 (14B) at Q8_0 needs about 17.4 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB), leaving ~30.6 GB spare and running at ~18 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~18 tok/s
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Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB) — what it gives a model
| Usable memory for models | 48 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 546 GB/s |
| Form factor | Desktop |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Memory upgradeable | No — soldered |
Phi-4 Family on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB): memory by quantization
| Quant | Memory needed | Fits 48 GB? | Max context | Est. speed | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F16 | 30.5 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~10.1 tok/s | 28 GB |
| Q8_0 | 17.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~18 tok/s | 14.9 GB |
| Q6_K | 14 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~22.6 tok/s | 11.5 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 12.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~25.7 tok/s | 9.9 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 10.9 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~29.4 tok/s | 8.5 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 8.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~38.8 tok/s | 6 GB |
| Q2_K | 7.1 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~47.2 tok/s | 4.6 GB |
What to watch out for
- Memory on this machine is not upgradeable, so the configuration you buy is the ceiling for every model you will ever run on it.
Mac Studio M4 Max 64 GB limitations
- Memory is soldered; the configuration chosen at purchase is permanent.
Recommended setup
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
How these numbers are calculated
- Memory need = quantized weights + KV cache at 8,192 tokens (f16) + 0.8 GB runtime overhead.
- 64 GB unified memory at 546 GB/s, shared between CPU and GPU.
- macOS reserves a share of unified memory for the system, so not all of it is available to a model.
- Throughput is a memory-bandwidth roofline estimate, not a measurement. It is labelled "estimated" everywhere it appears.
- KV cache is computed from this model's published attention configuration.
FAQ
Can I run Phi-4 Family on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?
Yes, comfortably — Phi-4 (14B) at Q8_0 needs about 17.4 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB), leaving ~30.6 GB spare and running at ~18 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Which quantization of Phi-4 Family should I use on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?
Q8_0 — it needs about 17.4 GB of the 48 GB available, downloads as roughly 14.9 GB, and runs at an estimated 18 tokens/sec with up to 16K of context.
What limits Phi-4 Family 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)
- Phi-4 Mini on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Poolside Laguna XS 2.1 on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Qwen 2.5 Family on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Qwen 2.5 VL on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Qwen 3 on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
Phi-4 Family on GPUs
- Phi-4 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
- Phi-4 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
- Phi-4 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
- Phi-4 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
What This Model Is Good At
Model & Tools
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