Apple
MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB with 36 GB unified memory. Fourth-generation Apple Silicon with enhanced Neural Engine and improved memory bandwidth, designed for AI-first workflows including local LLM inference.
Architecture
Apple M4 is the latest Apple Silicon generation, using TSMC's second-generation 3nm process. It features an enhanced Neural Engine with up to 38 TOPS and higher memory bandwidth across all tiers.
AI Relevance
The M4 Max with 128 GB unified memory and up to 546 GB/s bandwidth is currently the fastest Apple Silicon option for local LLM inference. Combined with MLX framework optimizations, it delivers the best tokens-per-second of any Mac configuration.
M4 is Apple's most AI-capable chip yet with up to 546 GB/s bandwidth in the Max variant. The unified memory architecture means models up to ~90 GB (at 72% usable) can run natively without offloading, covering most 70B models at Q4 quantization.
Agentic Coding
CThis 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 should run, but memory headroom will be limited. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Chat
CThis 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.
Coding
CThis model is a direct match for coding. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It should run, but memory headroom will be limited. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
RAG
CThis model is a direct match for rag. It sits in the middle of the current model mix. It should run, but memory headroom will be limited.
Reasoning
CThis 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.
Qwen3-VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Qwen3.5 9BDeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B
Codestral 2 25.08Devstral Small 2 24B InstructQwen3.5 4BDevstral Small 1.1Qwen3.5 27Bgemma 3 27b itQwen2.5 3B Instruct
gemma 2bQwen2.5 1.5B InstructQwen 2.5 Coder 32B
DeepSeek R1 671BDevstral 2 123B Instruct
GLM-5Qwen3.5 35B A3B
Kimi K2.5Mistral Large 3Mistral Small 4 119BQwen3-Coder 480B A35B InstructQwen3-Coder-NextQwen3.5 122B A10BDeepSeek V3 671BMixtral 8x22BQwen 2.5 72BQwen 3 235B A22BQwen3.5 397B A17B
Llama 3.3 70BLlama 4 Maverick 17B 128E
Command A 111BQwen 2.5 VL 72BJust out of reach
High-quality models that need a bit more memory
Upgrade paths
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Upgrade options
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