// RUN — FITS

Can the Apple M3 Max 36GB run DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B?

Yes — here's how fast and up to what context, with real measured numbers.

DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B on the Apple M3 Max 36GB

QuantFits?Max contextSpeedBeyond context
FP16 yes 129k 14.6-17.6 t/s ~0.5-0.6 (slow)
Q8 yes 182k 29.1-35.1 t/s ~1-1.2 (slow)
Q4 yes 206k 52-62.8 t/s ~1.7-2.1 (slow)

Estimate (memory-bound). Beyond "max context" the KV cache spills to SSD swap and speed drops to the "beyond" figure.

→ All models on the Apple M3 Max 36GB → DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B specs → Other hardware

FAQ

Can the Apple M3 Max 36GB run DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B?▶

Yes. At Q4 it generates ~52-62.8 tok/s and fits up to 206k context; beyond that it spills to SSD swap and slows to ~1.7-2.1 tok/s.

How much context fits?▶

At Q4, up to about 206k tokens stay in fast memory; longer context spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses.