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All estimates are approximations based on mathematical models and public specifications. Actual performance may vary. Do not make purchasing decisions based solely on these estimates.

Data sourced from Hugging Face, Ollama, and official model documentation. Model names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners.

© 2026 Will It Run AI — Fase Consulting Ibiza, S.L. (NIF: B57969656)

Home/Hardware/Macs/MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB
Apple

Apple

MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB

M3LaptopM3UNIFIEDMetal
64GB
Unified Memory
400GB/s
Bandwidth
$2,499 MSRP

About this GPU for AI

MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB with 64 GB unified memory. Third-generation Apple Silicon built on 3nm process with dynamic caching GPU architecture, significantly improving AI inference efficiency.

Specifications

Compute
ArchitectureM3
Memory
Unified Memory64 GB
Bandwidth400 GB/s
General
FamilyM3
SegmentLaptop
InterconnectUNIFIED
Compute PlatformMETAL
MSRP$2,499

For AI Workloads

Strengths
  • 3nm process enables higher efficiency
  • Dynamic caching GPU improves utilization
  • Up to 400 GB/s memory bandwidth (Max)
  • Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
  • Strong MLX optimization
Considerations
  • Base M3 still limited to 24 GB unified memory
  • Premium pricing for high-memory configurations

Architecture

M3

Apple M3 is built on TSMC's 3nm process, the first consumer chips at this node. It introduces Dynamic Caching for more efficient GPU memory allocation and hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

AI Relevance

Dynamic Caching improves GPU utilization for compute workloads including ML inference. The M3 Ultra with up to 512 GB unified memory can theoretically hold even unquantized 70B models, though memory bandwidth remains the throughput bottleneck.

Process: TSMC 3nmPlatform: METALPrecisions: FP32, FP16

M3's dynamic caching GPU architecture allocates local memory in hardware in real-time, improving GPU utilization for AI workloads. The M3 Max reaches 400 GB/s bandwidth, competitive with mid-range discrete GPUs.

Recommendations by Workload

Agentic Coding

C

Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct

This model is still usable for agentic-coding, but it is not the most specialized pick. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.

Decode 16.4 tok/s · 49K ctx · llama.cpp
30.0 GB / 64.0 GB Unified Memory

Chat

C

Qwen 3 30B A3B

This model is a direct match for chat. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.

Decode 33.4 tok/s · 14K ctx · llama.cpp
27.2 GB / 64.0 GB Unified Memory

Coding

C

Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct

This model is a direct match for coding. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.

Decode 16.4 tok/s · 28K ctx · llama.cpp
26.2 GB / 64.0 GB Unified Memory

RAG

C

Codestral 21B Pruned i1

This model is a direct match for rag. It sits in the middle of the current model mix. It fits natively with comfortable headroom.

Decode 18.7 tok/s · 54K ctx · llama.cpp
27.2 GB / 64.0 GB Unified Memory

Reasoning

C

Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct

This model is a direct match for reasoning. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.

Decode 16.4 tok/s · 28K ctx · llama.cpp
26.2 GB / 64.0 GB Unified Memory

Full Model Compatibility

AlibabaQwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct
C52
30.5B27.2 GB33 tok/s27K ctx
moe
AlibabaQwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct
C52
30B26.9 GB35 tok/s27K ctx
moe
AlibabaQwen 2.5 Coder 32B
C51
32B32.3 GB12 tok/s23K ctx
dense
UnslothQwen3.5 35B A3B
C51
35B34.6 GB11 tok/s21K ctx
dense
Lmstudio-communityLQwen3.5 35B A3B
C50
35B34.6 GB11 tok/s21K ctx
dense
UnslothQwen3.5 27B
C50
27B28.5 GB15 tok/s26K ctx
dense
Unslothgemma 3 27b it
C49
27B28.5 GB15 tok/s26K ctx
dense
MistralDevstral Small 2 24B Instruct
C49
24B26.2 GB16 tok/s28K ctx
dense
MistralDevstral Small 1.1
C49
24B26.2 GB16 tok/s28K ctx
dense
MistralCodestral 2 25.08
C48
22B24.7 GB18 tok/s30K ctx
dense
UnslothQwen3.5 4B
C47
4B11.1 GB98 tok/s67K ctx
dense
Lmstudio-communityLgemma 3 4b it
C47
4B11.1 GB98 tok/s67K ctx
dense
BartowskiBLlama 3.2 3B Instruct
C47
3B10.8 GB113 tok/s68K ctx
dense
BartowskiBgemma 2 2b it
C47
2B10.3 GB154 tok/s72K ctx
dense
QwenQwen2.5 3B Instruct
C47
3B10.4 GB131 tok/s71K ctx
dense
Googlegemma 2b
C47
2B9.8 GB197 tok/s75K ctx
dense
TheBlokeTLlama 2 7B Chat
C47
7B13.2 GB56 tok/s56K ctx
dense
TheBlokeTMistral 7B Instruct v0.2
C47
7B13.2 GB56 tok/s56K ctx
dense
UnslothQwen3.5 9B
C47
9B14.7 GB44 tok/s50K ctx
dense
HauhauCSHQwen3.5 9B Uncensored HauhauCS Aggressive
C47
9B14.7 GB44 tok/s50K ctx
dense
BartowskiBMeta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
C47
8B13.9 GB49 tok/s53K ctx
dense
TheDrummerTGemmasutra Mini 2B v1
C47
2B9.8 GB197 tok/s75K ctx
dense
MaziyarPanahiMMistral 7B Instruct v0.3
C47
7B13.2 GB56 tok/s56K ctx
dense
XtunerXllava llama 3 8b v1 1
C47
8B13.9 GB49 tok/s53K ctx
dense
UnslothDeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B
C47
8B13.9 GB49 tok/s53K ctx
dense
QwenQwen2.5 1.5B Instruct
C47
1.5B9.5 GB240 tok/s77K ctx
dense
Hugging-quantsHLlama 3.2 1B Instruct Q8 0
C47
1B9.4 GB252 tok/s78K ctx
dense
Lmstudio-communityLQwen3.5 9B
C47
9B14.7 GB44 tok/s50K ctx
dense
MaziyarPanahiMMeta Llama 3 8B Instruct
C47
8B13.9 GB49 tok/s53K ctx
dense
TheBlokeTTinyLlama 1.1B Chat v1.0
C46
1.1B9.3 GB240 tok/s79K ctx
dense
Ggml-orgGSmolVLM 500M Instruct
C46
0.5B9.0 GB252 tok/s82K ctx
dense
Ggml-orgGembeddinggemma 300M
C46
0.3B8.9 GB252 tok/s83K ctx
dense
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 671B
F0
671B422.9 GB2 tok/s4K ctx
moe
MistralDevstral 2 123B Instruct
F0
123B102.1 GB3 tok/s7K ctx
dense
Z.aiGLM-5
F0
744B467.9 GB2 tok/s4K ctx
moe
Moonshot AIKimi K2.5
F0
1000B622.8 GB2 tok/s4K ctx
moe
MistralMistral Large 3
F0
675B426.0 GB2 tok/s4K ctx
+1moe
MistralMistral Small 4 119B
F0
119B81.4 GB10 tok/s9K ctx
moe
AlibabaQwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
F0
480B306.1 GB2 tok/s4K ctx
moe
AlibabaQwen3-Coder-Next
F0
80B57.4 GB15 tok/s13K ctx
moe
UnslothQwen3.5 122B A10B
F0
122B86.7 GB4 tok/s9K ctx
dense
DeepSeekDeepSeek V3 671B
F0
671B422.9 GB2 tok/s4K ctx
moe
MistralMixtral 8x22B
F0
141B99.9 GB5 tok/s7K ctx
moe
AlibabaQwen 2.5 72B
F0
72B63.0 GB6 tok/s12K ctx
dense
AlibabaQwen 3 235B A22B
F0
235B154.6 GB5 tok/s5K ctx
moe
UnslothQwen3.5 397B A17B
F0
397B312.0 GB2 tok/s4K ctx
dense
MetaLlama 3.3 70B
F0
70B61.4 GB6 tok/s12K ctx
dense
MetaLlama 4 Maverick 17B 128E
F0
400B254.5 GB3 tok/s4K ctx
moe
CohereCommand A 111B
F0
111B92.9 GB4 tok/s8K ctx
dense
AlibabaQwen 2.5 VL 72B
F0
72B63.0 GB6 tok/s12K ctx
dense

Just out of reach

Models you could run with an upgrade

High-quality models that need a bit more memory

DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 671B
671BTier 5Needs ~428.7 GB
MistralDevstral 2 123B Instruct
123BTier 5Needs ~121.3 GB
Runs on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB
Z.aiGLM-5
744BTier 5Needs ~474.2 GB
Moonshot AIKimi K2.5
1000BTier 5Needs ~627.8 GB
MistralMistral Large 3
675BTier 5Needs ~432.4 GB

Upgrade paths

Upgrade from MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB

See what you unlock with more powerful hardware

Upgrade options

Upgrade options

NVIDIANVIDIA A40 48GBNext step up
696 GB/s (+296)
A
Unlocks Qwen3-Coder-Next+126% faster avg

 

AppleMac Studio M3 Ultra 96GBApple upgrade
96 GB Unified (+32)819 GB/s (+419)
A
Unlocks Qwen3-Coder-Next, Qwen 2.5 72B, Llama 3.3 70B+9 more · +124% faster avg

 

AppleMacBook Pro M3 Max 128GBBest value
128 GB Unified (+64)
B
Unlocks Mistral Small 4 119B, Qwen3-Coder-Next, Qwen 2.5 72B+13 more

~$2,499 MSRP

AMDAMD Instinct MI350X 288GBBiggest leap
288 GB VRAM (+224)8000 GB/s (+7600)
A
Unlocks Devstral 2 123B Instruct, Mistral Small 4 119B, Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct+27 more · +2122% faster avg

~$8,000 MSRP

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