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Can the Apple M3 Pro (36GB) run Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

Apple M3 Pro (36GB) × Qwen3.6 35B-A3B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at Q4_K_M22.6 GB of 24.1 GB
Weights 21.8 GBKV cache 0.2 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantQ4_K_MGood, most popular
Speed~49tokens per second
Max context80Ktokens that fit at Q4_K_M
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Yes. The Apple M3 Pro (36GB) can run Qwen3.6 35B-A3B fully in unified memory at Q4_K_M (good, most popular), using about 22.6 GB of the 24.1 GB available, at roughly 49 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen3.6 35B-A3B:

ollama run qwen3.6:35b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 22.6 GB here). That is also the best quant that fits.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M3 Pro (36GB)

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M3 Pro (36GB)? Run Qwen3.6 35B-A3B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Rent a GPU on RunPodRent a GPU on Vast.ai

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 24.1 GB the Apple M3 Pro (36GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 24.1 GB of the 36 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality72.8 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless39 GBToo big—
Q6_KExcellent30.3 GBToo big—
Q5_K_MVery good26.4 GBToo big—
Q4_K_MGood, most popular22.6 GBFits~49 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded18.4 GBFits~61 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded14.3 GBFits~80 tok/s

Measured speed from real Apple M3 Pro (36GB) owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own Apple M3 Pro (36GB), next to our estimate.

No one has measured Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on the Apple M3 Pro (36GB) yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an Apple M3 Pro (36GB)? Add your real speed

One command times Qwen3.6 35B-A3B in your own Ollama, shows you exactly what it would send, and asks before sending anything. No sign-up, no personal data.

macOS and Linux

curl -fsSL https://gpufit.dev/bench.sh | sh -s -- qwen3.6:35b

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:GPUFIT_MODEL="qwen3.6:35b"; irm https://gpufit.dev/bench.ps1 | iex

How the benchmark works

GPUs that run Qwen3.6 35B-A3B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M3 Pro (36GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M3 Pro (36GB) run Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

Yes. The Apple M3 Pro (36GB) can run Qwen3.6 35B-A3B fully in unified memory at Q4_K_M (good, most popular), using about 22.6 GB of the 24.1 GB available, at roughly 49 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Qwen3.6 35B-A3B need?

About 22.6 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 72.8 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on the Apple M3 Pro (36GB)?

Roughly 49 tokens per second at Q4_K_M, estimated from the Apple M3 Pro (36GB)'s 150 GB/s memory bandwidth.