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Apple M2 Max 32GB
Runs downloadable LLMs up to ~43.5B at Q4, ~60.7-73.2 tok/s on an 8B model.
What you can run
At 8k context, FP16 KV. Full-speed tok/s holds up to "max ctx"; beyond it the context spills to SSD swap and drops to the degraded figure.
| Model size | FP16 | Q8 | Q4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3B |
45.3-54.7 t/s ≤325k ctx · then ~1.1-1.4 (slow) |
90.7-109.3 t/s ≤371k ctx · then ~2.3-2.7 (slow) |
161.9-195.2 t/s ≤391k ctx · then ~4-4.9 (slow) |
| 7-8B |
17-20.5 t/s ≤86k ctx · then ~0.4-0.5 (slow) |
34-41 t/s ≤147k ctx · then ~0.9-1 (slow) |
60.7-73.2 t/s ≤174k ctx · then ~1.5-1.8 (slow) |
| 13B |
10.5-12.6 t/s ≤8k ctx · then ~0.3-0.3 (slow) |
20.9-25.2 t/s ≤87k ctx · then ~0.5-0.6 (slow) |
37.4-45.1 t/s ≤122k ctx · then ~0.9-1.1 (slow) |
| 32B | won't run | won't run |
15.2-18.3 t/s ≤36k ctx · then ~0.4-0.5 (slow) |
| 70B | won't run | won't run | won't run |
| 120B | won't run | won't run | won't run |
| 400B | won't run | won't run | won't run |
Estimate: tok/s ≈ bandwidth ÷ (params × bytes/param) × efficiency (Apple). Cyan = fits ~28.8 GB usable. Beyond "ctx", KV spills to SSD swap (rough degraded speed shown).
Run popular models on the Apple M2 Max 32GB
Videos about the Apple M2 Max 32GB
M2 Max MacBook Pro Review: Back to Bumps!
Apple Mac Studio M2 Max / M2 Ultra - A Long Term User Review
More hardware like the Apple M2 Max 32GB
About the Apple M2 Max 32GB
Apple M2 Max 32GB is a unified-memory system from Apple on Apple M2, 2023. For local genAI the numbers that matter are its 32 GB (how big a model + context fits) and 400 GB/s bandwidth (generation speed).
Frequently asked questions
What size LLM can the Apple M2 Max 32GB run?â–¶
With ~28.8 GB usable it runs up to ~43.5B at Q4 (~12.5B at FP16) at 8k context. Bigger spills into SSD swap and slows sharply.
How many tokens/sec does the Apple M2 Max 32GB generate?â–¶
Generation is bandwidth-bound. At 400 GB/s an 8B model at Q4 runs ~60.7-73.2 tok/s (estimate).
Why does long context slow it down?â–¶
The KV cache for the context must also fit fast memory; once weights+KV exceed 28.8 GB it spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses. Each row shows the max usable context.