// RUN โ€” FITS

Can the Apple M3 Max 48GB run Me Llama 70B?

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

Me Llama 70B on the Apple M3 Max 48GB

QuantFits?Max contextSpeedBeyond context
FP16 no โ€” โ€” โ€”
Q8 no โ€” โ€” โ€”
Q4 yes 8k 6.9-8.4 t/s ~0.2-0.2 (slow)

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

FAQ

Can the Apple M3 Max 48GB run Me Llama 70B?โ–ถ

Yes. At Q4 it generates ~6.9-8.4 tok/s and fits up to 8k context; beyond that it spills to SSD swap and slows to ~0.2-0.2 tok/s.

How much context fits?โ–ถ

At Q4, up to about 8k tokens stay in fast memory; longer context spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses.