Llama 3.1 70B Instruct on Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified)
Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) can run Llama 3.1 70B Instruct at 7 tok/s at Q5_K_M, though performance is acceptable. Consider a higher-end GPU for better results.
Model Size
70.6B
Device VRAM
128 GB
Bandwidth
546 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows Llama 3.1 70B Instruct performance at a different quality level on Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified).
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q5_K_M | 7 tok/s | 1800ms | ✓ Yes | Acceptable | estimated |
Notes
Q5_K_M
Q5 at 47GB fits comfortably in 128GB. Higher quality than Q4 with room for concurrent models. The 70B bandwidth bottleneck is real though.
About Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct (70.6B) is a chat, coding, ai coding, reasoning, multi-purpose model. Frontier-class open model. Approaches GPT-4 quality on many benchmarks. Requires significant VRAM — 48GB+ recommended for usable quantizations. Excellent for serious local deployment.
View all Llama 3.1 70B Instruct hardware options →About Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified)
Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) has 128 GB at 546 GB/s. Available in MacBook Pro 16", Mac Studio.
See all models Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) can run →Source: MLX 70B model reports (2026-01-15)
Data last updated: 2026-03-01