llmrun

Apple · M3 Max · Laptop

Best AI Models for MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB)

Runs 14B and 120B MoE models well; 27–31B and 70B fit but are slow (12 and 5 tok/s).

96 GB unified92.5 GB for models300 GB/s22 TFLOPS FP162023
Memory
36 GB48 GB64 GB96 GB128 GB
Same chip in
MacBook Pro 14"MacBook Pro 16"

What LLMs can the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max run?

#ModelSpeedllmrun ScoreQuant · Memory
1
Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibabaHow to run →
Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
45.9 tok/sQ4_K_M · 22.0 GB
2
Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle
Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
52.4 tok/sQ4_K_M · 16.5 GB
3
Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507Alibaba
Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB
51.6 tok/sQ4_K_M · 19.4 GB
4
GPT OSS 120BOpenAI
Q4_K_M · 70.8 GB
42.2 tok/sQ4_K_M · 70.8 GB
5
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA
Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB
57.9 tok/sQ4_K_M · 19.3 GB
See all 355 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max →Bars = traction for models without a Score yet
Task rankings use that task's benchmarks, topped up from Overall when short; bars mark well-known models with no Score yet.

About the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB)

The MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max is a 96 GB laptop with more memory than speed: it runs 14B and 120B MoE models well. Among 96 GB machines, only the M3 Ultra and M2 Max write faster. macOS keeps about 3.5 GB, leaving 92.5 GB for models. Prompt reading is its weak spot: a 4K-token prompt waits 9.0 s before the first word on Qwen3.6 35B A3B. M3 Max generation, released 2023; the newer M4 Max writes 40% faster with 1.6× the compute.

Speed in 96 GB#3300 GB/s
Prompt reading#322 TFLOPS
For models92.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GB
ChipM3 Maxreleased 2023

MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Runs 120B MoE models: GPT OSS 120B at 42.2 tok/s in 70.8 GB

Weaknesses

  • Slow on large dense models: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct at 4.5 tok/s, Qwen3.8 27B at 12.1 tok/s
  • Slow prompt reading: A 32K-token prompt on Qwen3.6 35B A3B waits 1.2 min for the first token
  • No CUDA: vLLM, AWQ, GPTQ and FP8 builds don't run; use GGUF or MLX

Memory for models

92.5 GB of 96 GB
35B MoE22 GB70B51.3 GB123B74.7 GB
35B MoE22 GB70B51.3 GB123B74.7 GB
For models 92.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GBModel size at Q4

Everything on the size ladder fits. Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Gemma 4 26B A4B IT together use 38.5 GB and leave 54 GB free.

Similar devices and alternatives

Other memory sizes of the same machine first, then machines and GPUs people weigh against it, each with the one reason it is worth a look. Speeds on Qwen3.6 35B A3B.

Same chip, 32 GB less memoryMacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (64 GB)Apple · 60.5 GB for models · M3 Max
▲ 20% speed▼ 32 GBno price
Same familySame chip, 32 GB more memoryMacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (128 GB)Apple · 124.5 GB for models · M3 Max
▲ 20% speed▲ 32 GBno price
Same familyReads prompts 13× faster, 120 GB for modelsDGX SparkNVIDIA · 120 GB for models · GB10
▲ 13× prompts▲ 18% speed▲ 27.5 GBabout $3,999
40% faster, 32 GB more memoryMac Studio M4 Max (128 GB)Apple · 124.5 GB for models · M4 Max
▲ 40% speed▲ 32 GBabout $3,499
3.3× faster if your models fit in 24 GBRTX 4090NVIDIA · 24 GB VRAM · GPU
▲ 229% speed▼ 68.5 GBabout $1,599rent $0.34/hr
4.6× faster if your models fit in 32 GBRTX 5090NVIDIA · 32 GB VRAM · GPU
▲ 365% speed▼ 60.5 GBabout $5,376rent $0.70/hr

MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (300 GB/s). Grey rows need more than the 92.5 GB available.

  1. 9BQwen3.5 9B · Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
    33.0tok/s
  2. 14BQwen3 14B · Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB
    22.1tok/s
  3. 27–31BQwen3.8 27B · Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
    12.1tok/s
  4. 35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
    45.9tok/s
  5. 70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct · Q4_K_M · 51.3 GB slow
    4.5tok/s
  6. 120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · Q4_K_M · 70.8 GB
    42.2tok/s

Estimated speeds: Q4_K_M, 4K context, one user. How we estimate

Max generations: writing vs compute

M1 Max → M5 Max
Writing speed (tok/s)Compute (TFLOPS FP16)
1×2×3×4×M1 Max2021M2 Max2023M3 Max2023M4 Max2024M5 Max2026M1 Max · 20.8 TFLOPS FP16M1 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM2 Max · 27.2 TFLOPS FP16M2 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM3 Max · 21.5 TFLOPS FP16M3 Max · 45.9 tok/s · 300 GB/sM4 Max · 34.4 TFLOPS FP16M4 Max · 64.2 tok/s · 546 GB/sM5 Max · 68 TFLOPS FP16M5 Max · 67.8 tok/s · 614 GB/sCompute 3.3×Writing +24%
1×2×3×4×M12021M22023M32023M42024M52026M1 Max · 20.8 TFLOPS FP16M1 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM2 Max · 27.2 TFLOPS FP16M2 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM3 Max · 21.5 TFLOPS FP16M3 Max · 45.9 tok/s · 300 GB/sM4 Max · 34.4 TFLOPS FP16M4 Max · 64.2 tok/s · 546 GB/sM5 Max · 68 TFLOPS FP16M5 Max · 67.8 tok/s · 614 GB/sCompute 3.3×Writing +24%

Writing speed follows memory bandwidth and barely moved: 54.5 to 67.8 tok/s since the M1 Max. Compute, which sets how fast prompts are read, grew 3.3×. Indexed to the M1 Max; speeds on Qwen3.6 35B A3B, same 64 GB.

All 1206 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max

Featured only

Best quant that fits in 92.5 GB, ordered by llmrun Score. Fit grades how well it runs here, S best. How ranking works

LLM models compatible with MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB) — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
ModelVRAMScoreFit
MiniCPM O 2 6
8.7B·Q4_K_M·37.4 t/s·33K ctx
6.4 GBA74, Runs well
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B
8.0B·Q4_K_M·39.0 t/s·131K ctx
7.3 GBA75, Runs well
Nemotron Orchestrator 8B
8.2B·Q4_K_M·38.0 t/s·41K ctx
7.6 GBA74, Runs well
Nemotron Cascade 8B
8B·Q4_K_M·38.9 t/s·33K ctx
7.5 GBA75, Runs well
Moonlight 16B A3B
16.0B·Q4_K_M·69.5 t/s·8K ctx
10.1 GBS86, Runs great
Llama 3 Korean Bllossom 8B
8.0B·Q4_K_M·39.0 t/s·8K ctx
6.2 GBA75, Runs well
CodeLlama 70B Instruct HF
69.0B·Q4_K_M·5.0 t/s·4K ctx
43.0 GBC42, Usable
LFM2.5 1.2B Base
1.2B·Q4_K_M·196.3 t/s·128K ctx
1.2 GBS100, Runs great
MiMo 7B Base
7.8B·Q4_K_M·39.6 t/s·33K ctx
7.4 GBA75, Runs well
Granite 3.1 2B Instruct
2.5B·Q4_K_M·105.5 t/s·131K ctx
3.2 GBS92, Runs great
Gemma 3 270M IT
270M·Q4_K_M·1166.7 t/s
1.2 GBS100, Runs great
T5gemma 2B 2B Ul2
5.6B·Q4_K_M·56.9 t/s
6.0 GBA82, Runs well
LFM2 350M Extract
354M·Q4_K_M·362.1 t/s·128K ctx
0.8 GBS100, Runs great
Vicuna 7B V1.5
7B·Q4_K_M·37.7 t/s·4K ctx
6.6 GBA74, Runs well
Saul 7B Instruct V1
7.2B·Q4_K_M·42.8 t/s·33K ctx
6.8 GBA77, Runs well

MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max specs

Specs

Chip
M3 Max
CPU cores
14
GPU cores
30
Unified memory
96 GB
For models
92.5 GB (macOS keeps 3.5 GB)
Memory bandwidth
300 GB/s
FP16 (dense)
21.5 TFLOPS
Neural Engine
18 TOPS
Released
2023-11-07

MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max FAQ

How much memory is available for AI on the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB)?

About 92.5 GB of the 96 GB. macOS keeps roughly 3.5 GB for itself and other apps.

What is the largest model the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB) can run?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 (123.6B) at Q4_K_M uses 74.7 GB, 81% of the available memory, and runs at about 18.2 tok/s.

Can the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB) run Qwen3.6 35B A3B?

Yes. Qwen3.6 35B A3B fits at Q4_K_M, using 22.0 GB of the 92.5 GB available, and it is the best model that runs well on this machine.

Can the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB) run 70B models?

Yes, but slowly: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct at Q4_K_M uses 51.3 GB and writes about 4.5 tok/s.

How long does the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max (96 GB) take to read a long prompt?

On Qwen3.6 35B A3B, about 9.0 s for a 4K-token prompt and 72 s for a 32K-token document before the first word appears.

Is renting a GPU cheaper than buying the MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max?

An RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition (96 GB) rents from $1.00/hr.

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