Can I Run Qwen 2.5 Family on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?
Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated November 12, 2024
Yes, but it is tight
Yes, but it is tight — Qwen 2.5 72B Instruct at Q4_K_M needs about 47 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB), leaving only ~1 GB before the runtime starts swapping. Expect ~6.5 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 8,192 tokens of context.
Confidence: medium · Recommended quantization: Q4_K_M · Estimated speed: ~6.5 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 |
Qwen 2.5 Family on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB): memory by quantization
| Quant | Memory needed | Fits 48 GB? | Max context | Est. speed | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F16 | 147.5 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 144 GB |
| Q8_0 | 80 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 76.5 GB |
| Q6_K | 62.5 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 59 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 54.5 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 51 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 47 GB | ✓ Yes | 8K | ~6.5 tok/s | 43.5 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 34.2 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~9.1 tok/s | 30.7 GB |
| Q2_K | 27.2 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~11.6 tok/s | 23.7 GB |
Which Qwen 2.5 Family sizes fit
| Variant | Needs at Q4_K_M | Fits? | Est. speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 2.5 72B Instruct | 47 GB | ✓ Fits | ~6.5 tok/s |
| Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B | 22.3 GB | ✓ Fits | ~14.1 tok/s |
| Qwen 2.5 14B Instruct | 10.9 GB | ✓ Fits | ~29.5 tok/s |
| Qwen 2.5 7B Instruct | 5.9 GB | ✓ Fits | ~52.3 tok/s |
What to watch out for
- Only ~1 GB of headroom at Q4_K_M: a longer context or a second application can push this into swapping.
- 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 Qwen 2.5 Family on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?
Yes, but it is tight — Qwen 2.5 72B Instruct at Q4_K_M needs about 47 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB), leaving only ~1 GB before the runtime starts swapping. Expect ~6.5 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 8,192 tokens of context.
Which quantization of Qwen 2.5 Family should I use on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)?
Q4_K_M — it needs about 47 GB of the 48 GB available, downloads as roughly 43.5 GB, and runs at an estimated 6.5 tokens/sec with up to 8K of context.
What limits Qwen 2.5 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)
- Qwen 2.5 VL on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Qwen 3 on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Qwen 3.5 on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Qwen 3.6 on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
- Qwen 3.7 on Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB)
Qwen 2.5 Family on GPUs
- Qwen 2.5 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
- Qwen 2.5 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
- Qwen 2.5 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
- Qwen 2.5 Family on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
What This Model Is Good At
Model & Tools
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