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What local LLMs run on M2 Max (38c GPU) 96GB?

With 96 GB unified memory (about 72.0 GB usable by the GPU), these are the best open models that fit. The top pick is gpt-oss 120B (MoE, MXFP4) at MXFP4 (~67.3 GB, ~56 tok/s): ollama run gpt-oss:120b.

Best for coding: gpt-oss 120B (MoE, MXFP4) (gpt-oss:120b), Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B (MoE, IQ2-class) (nemotron-3.5-bolt:74b-a9b), Qwen3.5 122B-A10B (MoE) (qwen3.5:122b).

Runtimes available for this hardware: Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, MLX.

Open the interactive checker for M2 Max (38c GPU) 96GB
#ModelQuantMemory neededFitSpeedCommand
1gpt-oss 120B (MoE, MXFP4)MXFP467.3 GBfits in fast memory~56 tok/sollama run gpt-oss:120b
2Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B (MoE, IQ2-class)Default27.7 GBfits in fast memory~53 tok/sollama run nemotron-3.5-bolt:74b-a9b
3Llama 4 Scout 109B (MoE)Q4_K_M69.7 GBfits in fast memory~15 tok/sollama run llama4:16x17b
4Qwen3.5 122B-A10B (MoE)Q4_K_M83.7 GBfits if the Mac GPU limit is raised~25 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:122b
5Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M52.4 GBfits in fast memory~85 tok/sollama run qwen3-next:80b
6Qwen3.5 35B-A3B (MoE)Q8_040.9 GBfits in fast memory~49 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b-q8_0
7Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (MoE)Q8_040.9 GBfits in fast memory~49 tok/sollama run qwen3.6:35b-a3b-q8_0
8Laguna XS 2.1 33B-A3B (MoE)Q8_037.4 GBfits in fast memory~49 tok/sollama run laguna-xs-2.1:q8_0
9GLM-4.7-Flash 30B-A3B (MoE)Q8_033.4 GBfits in fast memory~52 tok/sollama run glm-4.7-flash:q8_0
10Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B (MoE)Q8_033.4 GBfits in fast memory~46 tok/sollama run qwen3-coder:30b-a3b-q8_0
11Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B (MoE)Q8_035.7 GBfits in fast memory~49 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:30b-a3b-instruct-q8_0
12Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B (MoE)Q8_036.4 GBfits in fast memory~48 tok/sollama run nemotron-3.5-lightning:30b-a3b-q8_0
13Qwen3 30B-A3B (MoE)Q8_034.4 GBfits in fast memory~45 tok/sollama run qwen3:30b-a3b-q8_0
14Ornith-1.5 35B-A3B (MoE)Default24.8 GBfits in fast memory~81 tok/sollama run ornith-1.5:35b
15Bonsai 2 27B (ternary)Q2_010.6 GBfits in fast memory~39 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:27b
16Gemma 4 26B-A4B (MoE)Q8_029.6 GBfits in fast memory~39 tok/sollama run gemma4:26b-a4b-it-q8_0
17gpt-oss 20B (MoE, MXFP4)MXFP415.1 GBfits in fast memory~66 tok/sollama run gpt-oss:20b
18LFM2.5 24B-A2B (MoE)Q8_026.2 GBfits in fast memory~77 tok/sollama run lfm2.5:24b-a2b-q8_0
19DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70BQ4_K_M47.1 GBfits in fast memory~7 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:70b
20Llama 3.3 70BQ5_K_M54.1 GBfits in fast memory~6 tok/sollama run llama3.3:70b-instruct-q5_K_M
21North Mini Code 1.0 30B (MoE)Q8_034.1 GBfits in fast memory~10 tok/sollama run north-mini-code-1.0:q8_0
22Muse Glimmer 30BQ8_033.4 GBfits in fast memory~10 tok/sollama run muse-glimmer:30b-q8_0
23Granite 4.2 30BQ8_033.1 GBfits in fast memory~10 tok/sollama run granite4.2:30b-q8_0
24Qwen3.5 27BQ8_032.3 GBfits in fast memory~11 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:27b-q8_0
25Qwen3.6 27BQ8_032.3 GBfits in fast memory~11 tok/sollama run qwen3.6:27b-q8_0
26Gemma 3 27BQ8_032.3 GBfits in fast memory~11 tok/sollama run gemma3:27b-it-q8_0
27Qwen3 32BQ8_037.2 GBfits in fast memory~9 tok/sollama run qwen3:32b-q8_0
28DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BQ8_037.2 GBfits in fast memory~9 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:32b-qwen-distill-q8_0
29Gemma 4 31BQ8_036.5 GBfits in fast memory~9 tok/sollama run gemma4:31b-it-q8_0
30Clef 27B (Cloudflare, decision)Q8_032.3 GBfits in fast memory~11 tok/sollama run clef:27b-q8_0
31Qwen3.8 27BQ8_032.3 GBfits in fast memory~11 tok/sollama run qwen3.8:27b-q8_0
32Qwen3-VL 32BQ8_038.6 GBfits in fast memory~9 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:32b-instruct-q8_0
33Mistral Small 24BQ8_026.8 GBfits in fast memory~13 tok/sollama run mistral-small:24b-instruct-2501-q8_0
34Devstral Small 2 24BQ8_027.8 GBfits in fast memory~12 tok/sollama run devstral-small-2:24b-instruct-2512-q8_0
35Bonsai 2 9B (ternary)Q2_04.6 GBfits in fast memory~100 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:9b
36Qwen3 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~20 tok/sollama run qwen3:14b-q8_0
37DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~20 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:14b-qwen-distill-q8_0
38Phi-4 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~20 tok/sollama run phi4:14b-q8_0
39Ministral 3 14BQ8_016.6 GBfits in fast memory~21 tok/sollama run ministral-3:14b-instruct-2512-q8_0
40Mixtral 8x7B (MoE)Q8_051.8 GBfits in fast memory~12 tok/sollama run mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q8_0
41Mistral Nemo 12BQ8_014.2 GBfits in fast memory~25 tok/sollama run mistral-nemo:12b-instruct-2407-q8_0
42Gemma 3 12BQ8_014.6 GBfits in fast memory~25 tok/sollama run gemma3:12b-it-q8_0
43Gemma 4 12BQ8_014.6 GBfits in fast memory~25 tok/sollama run gemma4:12b-it-q8_0
44LFM2.5 8B-A1B (MoE)Q8_09.8 GBfits in fast memory~151 tok/sollama run lfm2.5:8b-a1b-q8_0
45Qwen3.5 9BQ8_011.4 GBfits in fast memory~32 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:9b-q8_0
46Llama 3.2 Vision 11BQ8_013.5 GBfits in fast memory~27 tok/sollama run llama3.2-vision:11b-instruct-q8_0
47Ornith-1.5 9BDefault8 GBfits in fast memory~48 tok/sollama run ornith-1.5:9b
48Nimble v3 9B (Bespoke Labs, decision)Q8_010.6 GBfits in fast memory~34 tok/sollama run nimble-v3:9b-q8_0
49Granite 4.2 8BQ8_010.3 GBfits in fast memory~34 tok/sollama run granite4.2:8b-q8_0
50Ministral 3 8BQ8_011.3 GBfits in fast memory~32 tok/sollama run ministral-3:8b-instruct-2512-q8_0
51Qwen3-VL 8BQ8_011.2 GBfits in fast memory~33 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:8b-instruct-q8_0
52Qwen3 8BQ8_09.9 GBfits in fast memory~36 tok/sollama run qwen3:8b-q8_0
53DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8BQ8_09.9 GBfits in fast memory~36 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:8b-0528-qwen3-q8_0
54DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~40 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:7b-qwen-distill-q8_0
55Qwen 2.5 VL 7BQ8_010.8 GBfits in fast memory~34 tok/sollama run qwen2.5vl:7b-q8_0
56MiniCPM-V 2.6 8BQ8_010.5 GBfits in fast memory~35 tok/sollama run minicpm-v:8b-2.6-q8_0
57Gemma 4 E4B (effective 4.5B)Q8_010.3 GBfits in fast memory~36 tok/sollama run gemma4:e4b-it-q8_0
58Clef-Flash 9B (Cloudflare, decision)Q8_012.4 GBfits in fast memory~29 tok/sollama run clef-flash:9b-q8_0
59Gemma 3n E4B (on-device)Q8_010.5 GBfits in fast memory~34 tok/sollama run gemma3n:e4b-it-q8_0
60Gemma 4 E2B (effective 2.3B)Q8_07.2 GBfits in fast memory~53 tok/sollama run gemma4:e2b-it-q8_0
61Qwen3.5 4BQ8_06.4 GBfits in fast memory~62 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:4b-q8_0
62DeepSeek Coder V2 Lite 16B (MoE)Q8_018 GBfits in fast memory~62 tok/sollama run deepseek-coder-v2:16b-lite-instruct-q8_0
63Gemma 3n E2B (on-device)Q8_07.8 GBfits in fast memory~46 tok/sollama run gemma3n:e2b-it-q8_0
64Qwen3-VL 4BQ8_06.3 GBfits in fast memory~63 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:4b-instruct-q8_0
65Gemma 3 4BQ8_06.2 GBfits in fast memory~64 tok/sollama run gemma3:4b-it-q8_0
66Qwen3 4BQ8_05.2 GBfits in fast memory~73 tok/sollama run qwen3:4b-q8_0
67tev1 4B (Together AI, decision)Q8_05.4 GBfits in fast memory~70 tok/sollama run tev1:4b-q8_0
68Ministral 3 3BQ8_05.6 GBfits in fast memory~71 tok/sollama run ministral-3:3b-instruct-2512-q8_0
69Phi-4 Mini 3.8BQ8_04.9 GBfits in fast memory~78 tok/sollama run phi4-mini:3.8b-q8_0
70Granite 4.2 3BQ8_04.7 GBfits in fast memory~82 tok/sollama run granite4.2:3b-q8_0
71Bonsai 2 4B (ternary)Q2_02.8 GBfits in fast memory~200 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:4b
72Qwen 2.5 72BQ5_K_M58.1 GBfits in fast memory~6 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:72b-instruct-q5_K_M
73Llama 3.2 3BQ8_04.2 GBfits in fast memory~94 tok/sollama run llama3.2:3b-instruct-q8_0
74Qwen 2.5 32BQ8_037.2 GBfits in fast memory~9 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:32b-instruct-q8_0
75Qwen 2.5 Coder 32BQ8_037.2 GBfits in fast memory~9 tok/sollama run qwen2.5-coder:32b-instruct-q8_0
76Qwen3.5 2BQ8_03.8 GBfits in fast memory~119 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:2b-q8_0
77Qwen3-VL 2BQ8_03.8 GBfits in fast memory~119 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:2b-instruct-q8_0
78Qwen 2.5 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~20 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:14b-instruct-q8_0
79Qwen 2.5 Coder 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~20 tok/sollama run qwen2.5-coder:14b-instruct-q8_0
80Qwen3 1.7BQ8_02.9 GBfits in fast memory~145 tok/sollama run qwen3:1.7b-q8_0
81DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5BQ8_02.6 GBfits in fast memory~168 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:1.5b-qwen-distill-q8_0
82SmolLM2 1.7BQ8_02.5 GBfits in fast memory~178 tok/sollama run smollm2:1.7b
83Bonsai 2 2B (ternary)Q2_02 GBfits in fast memory~352 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:2b
84Llama 3.1 8BQ8_09.5 GBfits in fast memory~38 tok/sollama run llama3.1:8b-instruct-q8_0
85Qwen 2.5 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~40 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:7b-instruct-q8_0
86Qwen 2.5 Coder 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~40 tok/sollama run qwen2.5-coder:7b-instruct-q8_0
87Mistral 7B v0.3Q8_08.7 GBfits in fast memory~42 tok/sollama run mistral:7b-instruct-q8_0
88GLM-OCR 0.9BBF163.7 GBfits in fast memory~119 tok/sollama run glm-ocr:latest
89LLaVA 1.6 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~41 tok/sollama run llava:7b-v1.6-vicuna-q8_0
90Code Llama 7BQ8_08.1 GBfits in fast memory~44 tok/sollama run codellama:7b-instruct-q8_0
91MiniCPM-V 4.6 1BQ8_02.9 GBfits in fast memory~168 tok/sollama run minicpm-v4.6:q8_0
92Llama 3.2 1BQ8_02 GBfits in fast memory~246 tok/sollama run llama3.2:1b
93LFM2.5 1.2B ThinkingQ8_01.9 GBfits in fast memory~267 tok/sollama run lfm2.5-thinking:1.2b-q8_0
94Gemma 3 1BQ8_01.8 GBfits in fast memory~291 tok/sollama run gemma3:1b-it-q8_0
95Qwen3.5 0.8BQ8_02 GBfits in fast memory~320 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:0.8b-q8_0
96Qwen3 0.6BQ8_01.5 GBfits in fast memory~386 tok/sollama run qwen3:0.6b-q8_0
97Qwen 2.5 3BQ8_04.1 GBfits in fast memory~97 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:3b-instruct-q8_0
98SmolLM2 360MFP161.3 GBfits in fast memory~438 tok/sollama run smollm2:360m
99SmolLM2 135MFP160.9 GBfits in fast memory~1185 tok/sollama run smollm2:135m
100Qwen 2.5 Coder 1.5BQ8_02.3 GBfits in fast memory~200 tok/sollama run qwen2.5-coder:1.5b-instruct-q8_0

Estimates, not benchmarks. Model sizes are ollama.com download sizes; memory needed adds headroom for ~8k tokens of context; speeds are rough figures from memory bandwidth. Data updated 2026-10-18.

A project by OnDevice Labs · llms.txt