Device profile · macOS

Best local LLMs for Apple M4 Max (64GB)

Apple M4 Max (64GB) has ~48 GB usable for model weights and runs 60 of 67 popular models. Best tool: LM Studio.

Usable memory: ~48 GB
Models run: 60
Too large: 7
Top pick: 70B

Top pick Q4_K_M

Llama 3.3 70B Tight

Fits at Q4_K_M (~45.3 GB of ~48 GB usable) but with little headroom, close other apps.

Runs on Apple M4 Max (64GB)

Compatible models 60 total

Too large for this device

DeepSeek R1 DeepSeek V3 Qwen3 235B A22B gpt-oss 120B Llama 4 Scout Sarvam-105B Qwen2.5 72B

Best way to run models on macOS

Runtime guide macOS

Beginner: LM Studio, Polished GUI, ships MLX on Apple Silicon, one-click model downloads.

Power user: mlx-lm, Apple's MLX framework, usually the fastest on Apple Silicon for the same quant.

vLLM is NOT a Mac tool, it is a CUDA/Linux serving engine. Unified memory is not a fixed VRAM slice; ~70% is usable for weights.

Full macOS tool guide →

FAQ

What is the best local LLM for Apple M4 Max (64GB)?

Llama 3.3 70B is the strongest model that runs comfortably, using ~45.3 GB at Q4_K_M of the ~48 GB usable on Apple M4 Max (64GB).

How much of Apple M4 Max (64GB)'s memory can I use for a model?

About 48 GB. Apple Silicon shares one unified memory pool; roughly 66-75% is available to the GPU for model weights, the rest is reserved for macOS.

Which tool should I use on macOS?

LM Studio (Polished GUI, ships MLX on Apple Silicon, one-click model downloads.) or mlx-lm for speed. vLLM is NOT a Mac tool, it is a CUDA/Linux serving engine. Unified memory is not a fixed VRAM slice; ~70% is usable for weights.

Sources

Memory figures are estimates. See methodology.