Apple unified memory · Apple
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M5 Max, 32-core GPU)
The same 32-core M5 Max and fixed 36GB as the 14-inch version, in the larger body, which Apple ships with a 140W adapter instead of 96W.
Memory for models
Assumed two thirds of 36 GB for macOS's default GPU limit, which Apple does not publish.
Memory bandwidth
Maker price
Largest at 4-bit
22.4 GB at 8,192 tokens of context, default GPU limit (an assumed limit, see Memory for models)
gpt-oss-20b, 4-bit
Memory configurations
One page covers every memory option the maker sells. Prices are the maker’s list price for the cheapest configuration with that much memory.
| Memory | Price | Memory the GPU can use |
|---|---|---|
| 36 GB | ~$4,399 | 24 GB default gpu limitassumption 28 GB limit raised with sysctlassumption |
Assumed two thirds of 36 GB for macOS's default GPU limit, which Apple does not publish. Raised with iogpu.wired_limit_mb per the MLX docs, leaving an assumed 8 GB for macOS. How GPU memory limits work on unified-memory machines.
What it runs at 4-bit
Every model in the catalog at its 4-bit file with 8,192 tokens of context. 20 of 41 fit. Speeds are the median of measured runs on the same chip where any exist; otherwise an estimate from memory bandwidth. Try other quants and context lengths.
| Model | Needs | Fit | Generation speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kimi K32.8T, 104B active · UD-Q4_K_XL | 1406.8 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro1.6T, 49B active · Q4_K_M | 890.5 GBcontext memory not counted | Does not fit | |
| Kimi K2.61T, 32B active · UD-Q4_K_XL | 545.7 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash552B, 16B active · Q4 (DwarfStar) | 484.5 GB | Does not fit | |
| GLM-5.3753.3B · UD-Q4_K_XL | 437.4 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| DeepSeek V3.2671B, 37B active · Q4_K_M | 379.6 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| MiniMax M3428B, 23B active · Q4_K_M | 244.8 GBcontext memory not counted | Does not fit | |
| Qwen3.5 397B-A17B397B, 17B active · Q4_K_M | 229.1 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| GLM-5.3 Flash320B, 18B active · UD-Q4_K_XL | 187.6 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| Hy3295B, 21B active · Q4_K_M | 173.6 GB | Does not fit | |
| MiniMax M2.7228.7B · Q4_K_M | 132.7 GB | Does not fit | |
| Qwen3.8 Flash-Next125B, 6B active · Q4_K_M | 113.1 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B120B, 12B active · Q4_K_M | 82.6 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10B122B, 10B active · Q4_K_M | 73.0 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| Mistral Medium 3.5 128B128B · Q4_K_M | 74.0 GB | Does not fit | |
| GLM-4.5-Air106B, 12B active · Q4_K_M | 70.9 GB | Does not fit | |
| Mistral Small 4 119B (2603)119B, 6.5B active · Q4_K_M | 69.3 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| Llama 4 Scout 17B-16E Instruct109B, 17B active · Q4_K_M | 62.4 GBcontext memory not counted | Does not fit | |
| gpt-oss-120b117B, 5.1B active · MXFP4 (native) | 60.2 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| Qwen3 Coder Next80B, 3B active · Q4_K_M | 46.9 GBcontext memory estimated | Does not fit | |
| Llama 3.3 70B Instruct70B · Q4_K_M | 43.6 GB | Does not fit | |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B30B, 3B active · Q4_K_M | 25.3 GBcontext memory estimated | Fits with raised limitassumed limit | ~60–107 tok/sestimate |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3B35B, 3B active · Q4_K_M | 22.4 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~80–143 tok/sestimate |
| Ornith 1.5 35B-A3B35B, 3B active · Q4_K_M | 21.9 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~82–147 tok/sestimate |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B Instruct30.5B, 3.3B active · Q4_K_M | 19.5 GB | Fitsassumed limit | ~76–136 tok/sestimate |
| Gemma 4 31B IT30.7B · Q4_K_M | 18.9 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~18–23 tok/sestimate |
| Granite 4.2 30B29.3B · Q4_K_M | 20.3 GB | Fitsassumed limit | ~19–23 tok/sestimate |
| Qwen3.8 27B27B · Q4_K_M | 18.2 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~19–24 tok/sestimate |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B IT25.2B, 3.8B active · Q4_K_M | 17.4 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~60–106 tok/sestimate |
| Qwen3.6 27B27B · Q4_K_M | 17.7 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~20–25 tok/sestimate |
| Devstral Small 2 24B (2512)24B · Q4_K_M | 16.1 GB | Fitsassumed limit | 28 tok/smedian of 1 run |
| gpt-oss-20b21B, 3.6B active · MXFP4 (native) | 12.5 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | 105 tok/smedian of 3 runs |
| Phi-414.7B · Q4_K_M | 11.3 GB | Fitsassumed limit | ~38–47 tok/sestimate |
| Ministral 3 14B Reasoning (2512)13.9B · Q4_K_M | 10.4 GB | Fitsassumed limit | ~41–51 tok/sestimate |
| Gemma 4 12B IT11.95B · Q4_K_M | 8.2 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~47–59 tok/sestimate |
| Qwen3.5 9B9B · Q4_K_M | 7.0 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~59–74 tok/sestimate |
| Granite 4.2 8B8.8B · Q4_K_M | 7.9 GB | Fitsassumed limit | ~61–76 tok/sestimate |
| Gemma 4 E4B IT8B · Q4_K_M | 6.5 GBcontext memory not counted | Fitsassumed limit | ~111–138 tok/sestimate |
| Qwen3 8B8.2B · Q4_K_M | 7.3 GB | Fitsassumed limit | ~67–84 tok/sestimate |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct8B · Q4_K_M | 7.1 GB | Fitsassumed limit | 75 tok/smedian of 2 runs |
| Qwen3.5 4B4B · Q4_K_M | 4.3 GBcontext memory estimated | Fitsassumed limit | ~123–153 tok/sestimate |
Measured speeds
6 published runs with one user, plain decoding and at most 4,096 tokens already in context, on M5 Max (18-core CPU, 32-core GPU). Runs on 2 other machines with the same chip count here too, and say so.
| Model | Quant | Backend | Generation | Prompt | Context | Measured on | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devstral Small 2 24B (2512) | 4-bit MLX (Devstral-Small-2-24B-Instruct-2512-4bit) | oMLX (version not stated) (MLX) | 28 tok/s | 874 tok/s1,024-token prompt | 1,024 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-09 |
| gpt-oss-20b | 4-bit MLX (gpt-oss-20b-MXFP4-Q8) | oMLX 0.7.0.dev2 (MLX) | 107 tok/s | 3,407 tok/s1,024-token prompt | 1,024 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-09 |
| gpt-oss-20b | 4bit (MLX) | oMLX (version not stated) | 105 tok/s | 4,287 tok/s4,096-token prompt | 4,096 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-10 |
| gpt-oss-20b | 4bit (MLX) | oMLX (version not stated) | 105 tok/s | 4,204 tok/s4,096-token prompt | 4,096 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-10 |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | 4-bit MLX (Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-4bit) | oMLX (version not stated) (MLX) | 87 tok/s | 2,860 tok/s1,024-token prompt | 1,024 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-10 |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Q4_K_M | LocalScore (llamafile/llama.cpp, version not stated) | 62 tok/s | 637 tok/s | 0 | a machine with the same chip | LocalScore2026-10 |
Deep into a long context
Measured with more than 4,096 tokens already in context, where every new token also reads the context memory.
| Model | Quant | Backend | Generation | Prompt | Context | Measured on | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devstral Small 2 24B (2512) | 4-bit MLX (Devstral-Small-2-24B-Instruct-2512-4bit) | oMLX (version not stated) (MLX) | 25 tok/s | 871 tok/s16,384-token prompt | 16,384 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-09 |
| Devstral Small 2 24B (2512) | 4-bit MLX (Devstral-Small-2-24B-Instruct-2512) | oMLX 0.4.2.dev1 (MLX) | 19 tok/s | 537 tok/s32,768-token prompt | 32,768 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-06 |
| gpt-oss-20b | 4-bit MLX (gpt-oss-20b-MXFP4-Q8) | oMLX 0.7.0 (MLX) | 90 tok/s | 4,019 tok/s16,384-token prompt | 16,384 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-10 |
| gpt-oss-20b | 4-bit MLX (gpt-oss-20b-MXFP4-Q8) | oMLX 0.5.4 (MLX) | 74 tok/s | 2,640 tok/s32,768-token prompt | 32,768 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-08 |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | 4-bit MLX (Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-4bit) | oMLX (version not stated) (MLX) | 63 tok/s | 2,304 tok/s16,384-token prompt | 16,384 | a machine with the same chip | oMLX benchmark submission2026-09 |
Specifications
- Chip
- M5 Max (18-core CPU, 32-core GPU)
- Memory
- unified LPDDR (Apple does not state the generation)
- Memory bandwidth
- 460 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- Apple does not publish TFLOPS for the M5 Max GPU or its Neural Accelerators
- Software
- Metal, MLX
- Ships with
- macOS
- Power
- 140 W (USB-C power adapter included with the M5 Max 16-inch configuration (Apple store config))
- Form factor
- Laptop
- Networking
- No Ethernet; three Thunderbolt 5 ports
- Released
- 2026-03
- Maker page
- apple.com
Sources
- apple.com: M5 Max variants, 460/614GB/s bandwidth, memory options
- apple.com: base price $4,399 for 16-inch 32-core GPU
- apple.com: memory deltas (48GB +$0, 64GB +$400, 128GB +$2,000 for 40-core; 36GB only for 32-core); power adapter wattage
- macworld.com: M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pro pre-orders from March 4, 2026
- github.com: how far the GPU memory limit can be raised on a Mac (sysctl iogpu.wired_limit_mb)
- github.com: the default GPU memory limit on a Mac and how to raise it