Apple M3 Max — Local LLM Performance & Compatibility

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 12, 2026

Up to 128 GB unified memory. Very popular among AI developers. 95 t/s on 8B, 28 t/s on 70B models. Available as MacBook Pro or Mac Studio.

Technical Specifications

VRAM64 GB unified memory
Memory Bandwidth400 GB/s
TDP35 W
ArchitectureARM, 3nm TSMC
Release Year2023
MSRP at Launch$2,499
Inference Speed (Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M)24–49 tok/s (estimated)
Inference Speed (Llama 3.3 70B Q4_K_M)3.2–6.7 tok/s (estimated)
Buy This HardwareApple MacBook Pro M3 Max — 64 GB VRAM · 35 W board powerDeploy in the Cloud NowNVIDIA A100 80GB on RunPod — from $1.39/hr · rate checked 2026-07

or compare on Vast.ai from $0.77/hr (typical low · varies)

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Apple MacBook Pro M3 Max
64 GB VRAM · 35 W board power
2026 prices are volatile — check the current listing.
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LLMs Compatible with 64 GB Unified Memory

All models below run comfortably in 64 GB unified memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

Llama 3.3Llama 3.3 70B Instruct · 43 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run llama3.3
Llama 3.1 FamilyLlama 3.1 8B Instruct · 6 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run llama3.1
DeepSeek R1DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B · 20 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run deepseek-r1:32b
Qwen 3Qwen 3 32B · 21 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run qwen3:32b
Gemma 3Gemma 3 27B Instruct · 17 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run gemma3:27b
Mistral Small 3.1Mistral Small 3.1 24B · 15 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · ollama run mistral-small3.1
Phi-4 FamilyPhi-4 (14B) · 9 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 M3 Max run local LLMs?

Yes — the Apple M3 Max has 64 GB unified memory and runs Up to 128 GB unified memory. Very popular among AI developers. 95 t/s on 8B, 28 t/s on 70B models. Available as MacBook

How fast is the Apple M3 Max for AI inference?

The Apple M3 Max is estimated to run Llama 3.1 8B at 24–49 tok/s with Q4_K_M quantization. For Llama 3.3 70B the estimate is 3.2–6.7 tok/s. These are modelled estimates, not measurements — see /en/methodology.

What LLMs can I run on 64 GB VRAM?

With 64 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.

Can I Run It? — Apple M3 Max

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