Can the Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Qwen2.5 14B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Qwen2.5 14B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 31.6 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 8 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen2.5 14B:
ollama run qwen2.5:14bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 11.1 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M3 Max (64GB)? Run Qwen2.5 14B in the cloud.
Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.
Memory needed by quantization
At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 48 GB the Apple M3 Max (64GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 48 GB of the 64 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 31.6 GB | Fits | ~8 tok/s | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 17.8 GB | Fits | ~15 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 14.3 GB | Fits | ~20 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 12.7 GB | Fits | ~23 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 11.1 GB | Fits | ~27 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 9.4 GB | Fits | ~33 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 7.7 GB | Fits | ~44 tok/s |
GPUs that run Qwen2.5 14B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Qwen2.5 14B?
Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Qwen2.5 14B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 31.6 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 8 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Qwen2.5 14B need?
About 11.1 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 31.6 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Qwen2.5 14B on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)?
Roughly 8 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M3 Max (64GB)'s 400 GB/s memory bandwidth.