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Apple M2 Max 64GB
Runs downloadable LLMs up to ~95B 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 ≤764k ctx · then ~1.1-1.4 (slow) |
90.7-109.3 t/s ≤810k ctx · then ~2.3-2.7 (slow) |
161.9-195.2 t/s ≤830k ctx · then ~4-4.9 (slow) |
| 7-8B |
17-20.5 t/s ≤306k ctx · then ~0.4-0.5 (slow) |
34-41 t/s ≤367k ctx · then ~0.9-1 (slow) |
60.7-73.2 t/s ≤394k ctx · then ~1.5-1.8 (slow) |
| 13B |
10.5-12.6 t/s ≤184k ctx · then ~0.3-0.3 (slow) |
20.9-25.2 t/s ≤263k ctx · then ~0.5-0.6 (slow) |
37.4-45.1 t/s ≤298k ctx · then ~0.9-1.1 (slow) |
| 32B | won't run |
8.5-10.3 t/s ≤92k ctx · then ~0.2-0.3 (slow) |
15.2-18.3 t/s ≤146k ctx · then ~0.4-0.5 (slow) |
| 70B | won't run | won't run |
6.9-8.4 t/s ≤52k ctx · then ~0.2-0.2 (slow) |
| 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 ~57.6 GB usable. Beyond "ctx", KV spills to SSD swap (rough degraded speed shown).
Run popular models on the Apple M2 Max 64GB
Videos about the Apple M2 Max 64GB
M2 Max MacBook Pro Review: Back to Bumps!
Apple Mac Studio M2 Max / M2 Ultra - A Long Term User Review
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About the Apple M2 Max 64GB
Apple M2 Max 64GB is a unified-memory system from Apple on Apple M2, 2023. For local genAI the numbers that matter are its 64 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 64GB run?▶
With ~57.6 GB usable it runs up to ~95B at Q4 (~26.5B at FP16) at 8k context. Bigger spills into SSD swap and slows sharply.
How many tokens/sec does the Apple M2 Max 64GB generate?▶
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?▶
The KV cache for the context must also fit fast memory; once weights+KV exceed 57.6 GB it spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses. Each row shows the max usable context.