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Mac Studio M4 Max (64GB) for Local LLMs: What It Runs and How Fast
The Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB is the lowest rung of the 70B club: ~48GB of usable unified memory, with Llama 3.3 70B Q4 (~47.4GB) just barely fitting. Buy the full 16-core-CPU/40-core-GPU version for 546 GB/s — the 14-core version has only 410 GB/s, a small price gap but a big LLM experience gap. Around $2,899 (est.: $2,499 + $400 for the 36→64GB upgrade, pending manual review).
What the money buys: silent 70B (theoretical ~10 tok/s, readable), blazing MoE at the 30B level (30B-A3B ~200 tok/s), and macOS's out-of-box MLX/llama.cpp ecosystem. Against dual 3090s: same price, same capacity, but ~80% less power, silent, zero maintenance; it loses on gaming, the CUDA ecosystem, and resale flexibility. It is the standard answer to “I want 70B without becoming an operator”, and one of the most-asked machines on this site.
Specs
| Nominal VRAM | 64 GB |
| Usable VRAM (for models) | 48.0 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 546 GB/s |
| Type | Unified memory |
| Release year | 2025 |
| MSRP | $2,899 |
| TDP | 80 W |
Apple unified memory is counted at 75% usable for models (the rest serves the system/display).
Value Metrics
Based on MSRP (no used price yet); used prices are market estimates, see commentary for volatility.
Model Verdict Matrix (Q4_K_M @8K)
| Model | VRAM needed | Verdict | Recommended quant | Theoretical speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.2 3B | 4.4 GB | Comfortable | FP16 | ≈64 tok/s | Try it → |
| Llama 3.1 8B | 7.5 GB | Comfortable | FP16 | ≈25 tok/s | Try it → |
| Qwen3 8B | 7.7 GB | Comfortable | FP16 | ≈25 tok/s | Try it → |
| Phi-4 14B | 12.2 GB | Comfortable | FP16 | ≈14 tok/s | Try it → |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | 17.5 GB | Comfortable | Q8_0 | ≈16 tok/s | Try it → |
| Gemma 3 27B | 22.4 GB | Comfortable | Q8_0 | ≈14 tok/s | Try it → |
| Qwen3.8 27B | 20.7 GB | Comfortable | Q8_0 | ≈14 tok/s | Try it → |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 20.1 GB | Comfortable | Q8_0 | ≈13 tok/s | Try it → |
| Qwen3 30B-A3B | 21.0 GB | Comfortable | Q8_0 | ≈117 tok/s | Try it → |
| Qwen3 32B | 23.7 GB | Comfortable | Q8_0 | ≈12 tok/s | Try it → |
| gpt-oss-20b | 14.7 GB | Comfortable | FP16 | ≈57 tok/s | Try it → |
| Llama 3.3 70B | 47.4 GB | Tight fit | Q4_K_M | ≈9 tok/s | Try it → |
| gpt-oss-120b | 73.6 GB | Not feasible | needs 2 cards | — | Try it → |
| DeepSeek-R1 671B | 413.1 GB | Not feasible | — | — | Try it → |
Theoretical speed = bandwidth × 0.75 ÷ per-token weight bytes (active params for MoE); real-world results vary with framework/driver/CPU, ±30%.
FAQ
- Can the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB run 70B?
- Tight: Llama 3.3 70B Q4_K_M @8K is ~47.4GB against ~48GB usable — it fits at the ceiling, theoretically ~10 tok/s. For headroom or Q6, choose the 96GB M3 Ultra.
- Does the 14-core vs 16-core version matter?
- Hugely for LLMs: 410 vs 546 GB/s bandwidth — a 33% decode speed difference. The price gap is far smaller than the experience gap; for LLMs, buy the full 16-core/40-GPU version.
- M4 Max 64GB or dual 3090s?
- Same price and capacity: dual 3090s bring more aggregate bandwidth (~1591 vs 546 GB/s) and CUDA; the M4 Max is silent, ~80% cheaper to power, and zero-maintenance. Always-on/speed: dual 3090s; daily desktop: Mac.
Related guides
- Mac vs GPU for LLM Inference: Unified Memory Explained
- Best GPU for Local LLMs in 2026: Every Budget Tier
- Why Memory Bandwidth Determines LLM Inference Speed
Try Mac Studio M4 Max (64GB) in the GPU compatibility checker →
Data verified 2026-09-01