// RUN โ€” FITS

Can the Apple M4 Max 36GB run Pythia-1.4b?

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

Pythia-1.4b on the Apple M4 Max 36GB

QuantFits?Max contextSpeedBeyond context
FP16 yes 429k 132.6-159.9 t/s ~2.4-2.9 (slow)
Q8 yes 450k 265.2-319.8 t/s ~4.9-5.9 (slow)
Q4 yes 460k 473.6-571.1 t/s ~8.7-10.5 (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 M4 Max 36GB run Pythia-1.4b?โ–ถ

Yes. At Q4 it generates ~473.6-571.1 tok/s and fits up to 460k context; beyond that it spills to SSD swap and slows to ~8.7-10.5 tok/s.

How much context fits?โ–ถ

At Q4, up to about 460k tokens stay in fast memory; longer context spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses.