// RUN โ€” FITS

Can the Apple M3 Max 64GB run Pythia-70m?

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

Pythia-70m on the Apple M3 Max 64GB

QuantFits?Max contextSpeedBeyond context
FP16 yes 854k 1942.9-2342.9 t/s ~48.6-58.6 (slow)
Q8 yes 855k 3885.7-4685.7 t/s ~97.1-117.1 (slow)
Q4 yes 855k 6938.8-8367.3 t/s ~173.5-209.2 (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 64GB run Pythia-70m?โ–ถ

Yes. At Q4 it generates ~6938.8-8367.3 tok/s and fits up to 855k context; beyond that it spills to SSD swap and slows to ~173.5-209.2 tok/s.

How much context fits?โ–ถ

At Q4, up to about 855k tokens stay in fast memory; longer context spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses.