Laptop
MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB) — Local LLM Performance
MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB) is a Laptop running macOS, with 128 GB unified memory.
Specifications
- Memory for models
- 128 GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 546 GB/s
- Memory upgradeable
- No — soldered, decided at purchase
- Chip
- Apple M4 Max
- Architecture
- ARM, 3nm TSMC
- Form factor
- Laptop
- Operating system
- macOS
- Released
- 2024
- Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M
- 31–64 tok/s
Worth knowing before you buy
- Unified memory is soldered — the 128 GB decision is permanent and cannot be upgraded later.
- Sustained decode speed on battery is materially below the plugged-in figures quoted here.
Models on the MacBook Pro M4 Max 128 GB
- Yi 1.5 FamilyYes — comfortably
- VibeThinkerYes — comfortably
- Aya 3B (Tiny Aya)Yes — comfortably
- StarCoder 2Yes — comfortably
- SmolLM3Yes — comfortably
- SmolLM2Yes — comfortably
- Qwen3-CoderYes
- Qwen3.8Yes — comfortably
- Qwen 3.6Yes — comfortably
- Qwen 3.5Yes, but it is tight
- Qwen 3Yes — comfortably
- Qwen 2.5 VLYes — comfortably
- Qwen 2.5 FamilyYes — comfortably
- Poolside Laguna XS 2.1Yes — comfortably
- Phi-4 MiniYes — comfortably
- Phi-4 FamilyYes — comfortably
- Phi 3.5 FamilyYes — comfortably
- OLMo 2Yes — comfortably
- North Mini CodeYes — comfortably
- Nex-N2Yes — comfortably
- Nex-N2.5Yes — comfortably
- Nemotron Cascade 2Yes — comfortably
- Nemotron 70BYes — comfortably
- Nemotron 3 SuperYes, but it is tight
- Nemotron 3 Nano OmniYes — comfortably
- Mistral Small 4Yes, but it is tight
- Mistral Small 3.1Yes — comfortably
- Mistral Small 3.2Yes — comfortably
- Mistral FamilyYes — comfortably
- MinistralYes — comfortably
- Ministral 3Yes — comfortably
- MiniMax M3No
- MiniMax M2.7Yes
- MiniMax M2.5Yes
- MiniCPM-VYes — comfortably
- Magistral SmallYes — comfortably
- Llama 4Yes, but it is tight
- Llama 4.5Yes, but it is tight
- Llama 3.3Yes — comfortably
- Llama 3.2 VisionYes — comfortably
- Llama 3.2 FamilyYes — comfortably
- Llama 3.1 FamilyYes — comfortably
- LFM2.5Yes — comfortably
- InternLM 3Yes — comfortably
- IBM Granite 4.0Yes — comfortably
- IBM Granite 4.2Yes — comfortably
- IBM Granite 4.1Yes — comfortably
- Granite 3.0Yes — comfortably
- GPT-OSSYes
- GLM-4.7 / GLM-Z1Yes — comfortably
- GLM-5 / GLM-5.1No
- Gemma 4Yes — comfortably
- Gemma 3nYes — comfortably
- Gemma 3Yes — comfortably
- Gemma 2 FamilyYes — comfortably
- Falcon 3Yes — comfortably
- EXAONE 3.5Yes — comfortably
- DevstralYes — comfortably
- DeepSeek V4Yes, but it is tight
- DeepSeek V4.1No
- DeepSeek R1Yes — comfortably
- DeepSeek-OCRYes — comfortably
- Cosmos 3Yes — comfortably
- Command R FamilyYes — comfortably
- Cogito v1Yes — comfortably
- CodestralYes — comfortably
- Bonsai 27BYes — comfortably
- BitNet b1.58Yes — comfortably
- Aya ExpanseYes — comfortably