Apple M1 Ultra — Local LLM Performance & Compatibility

Two M1 Max dies fused together. Up to 128 GB unified memory at 800 GB/s — comfortably runs 70B models at Q4. Mac Studio exclusive.

Technical Specifications

VRAM128 GB unified memory
Memory Bandwidth800 GB/s
TDP60 W
ArchitectureARM, 5nm TSMC
Release Year2022
MSRP at Launch$3,999
Inference Speed (Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M)~155 tokens/sec
Inference Speed (Llama 3.3 70B Q4_K_M)~45 tokens/sec

LLMs Compatible with 128 GB Unified Memory

All models below run comfortably in 128 GB unified memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

Llama 3.324 GB VRAM · Q2_K_XS (Tight) · ollama run llama3.3
Llama 3.1 Family6 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run llama3.1
DeepSeek R120 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run deepseek-r1:32b
Qwen 380 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run qwen3:235b-a22b
Gemma 316 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run gemma3:27b
Mistral Small 3.114 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run mistral-small3.1
Phi-4 Family10 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run phi4

Best Use Cases

Quick Start with Ollama

Install Ollama then run the recommended model for this GPU:

ollama run llama3.3:70b

FAQ

Can the Apple M1 Ultra run local LLMs?

Yes — the Apple M1 Ultra has 128 GB unified memory and runs Two M1 Max dies fused together. Up to 128 GB unified memory at 800 GB/s — comfortably runs 70B models at Q4. Mac Studio

How fast is the Apple M1 Ultra for AI inference?

The Apple M1 Ultra runs Llama 3.1 8B at ~155 tokens/sec with Q4_K_M quantization. For the 70B model it achieves ~45 tokens/sec.

What LLMs can I run on 128 GB VRAM?

With 128 GB you can run: Llama 3.3, Llama 3.1 Family, DeepSeek R1, Qwen 3, Gemma 3. Use Ollama for the easiest setup: ollama run llama3.3:70b.

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