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What local LLMs run on M3 Max (30c GPU) 36GB?

With 36 GB unified memory (about 27.0 GB usable by the GPU), these are the best open models that fit. The top pick is Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B (MoE, IQ2-class) at Default (~27.7 GB, ~39 tok/s): ollama run nemotron-3.5-bolt:74b-a9b.

Best for coding: Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B (MoE, IQ2-class) (nemotron-3.5-bolt:74b-a9b), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (MoE) (qwen3.6:35b-a3b-q4_K_M), Laguna XS 2.1 33B-A3B (MoE) (laguna-xs-2.1:latest).

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

Open the interactive checker for M3 Max (30c GPU) 36GB
#ModelQuantMemory neededFitSpeedCommand
1Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B (MoE, IQ2-class)Default27.7 GBfits if the Mac GPU limit is raised~39 tok/sollama run nemotron-3.5-bolt:74b-a9b
2Qwen3.5 35B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M23.9 GBfits in fast memory~65 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:35b
3Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M25.9 GBfits in fast memory~60 tok/sollama run qwen3.6:35b-a3b-q4_K_M
4Ornith-1.5 35B-A3B (MoE)Default24.8 GBfits in fast memory~61 tok/sollama run ornith-1.5:35b
5Laguna XS 2.1 33B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M21.4 GBfits in fast memory~67 tok/sollama run laguna-xs-2.1:latest
6Qwen3 30B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M20.4 GBfits in fast memory~58 tok/sollama run qwen3:30b
7Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M20.4 GBfits in fast memory~58 tok/sollama run qwen3-coder:30b
8GLM-4.7-Flash 30B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M20.4 GBfits in fast memory~66 tok/sollama run glm-4.7-flash:latest
9Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M21.7 GBfits in fast memory~62 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:30b
10Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B (MoE)Q4_K_M26.4 GBfits in fast memory~51 tok/sollama run nemotron-3.5-lightning:30b-a3b-q4_K_M
11LFM2.5 24B-A2B (MoE)Q8_026.2 GBfits in fast memory~58 tok/sollama run lfm2.5:24b-a2b-q8_0
12Bonsai 2 27B (ternary)Q2_010.6 GBfits in fast memory~29 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:27b
13gpt-oss 20B (MoE, MXFP4)MXFP415.1 GBfits in fast memory~50 tok/sollama run gpt-oss:20b
14Gemma 4 26B-A4B (MoE)Q4_K_M19.6 GBfits in fast memory~45 tok/sollama run gemma4:26b-a4b-it-q4_K_M
15Granite 4.2 30BQ5_K_M23.1 GBfits in fast memory~11 tok/sollama run granite4.2:30b-q5_K_M
16Qwen3 32BQ4_K_M22.2 GBfits in fast memory~12 tok/sollama run qwen3:32b
17DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32BQ4_K_M22.2 GBfits in fast memory~12 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:32b
18Qwen3-VL 32BQ4_K_M23.6 GBfits in fast memory~11 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:32b
19Muse Glimmer 30BQ4_K_M20.4 GBfits in fast memory~13 tok/sollama run muse-glimmer:30b
20North Mini Code 1.0 30B (MoE)Q4_K_M21.1 GBfits in fast memory~13 tok/sollama run north-mini-code-1.0:latest
21Gemma 4 31BQ4_K_M22.5 GBfits in fast memory~12 tok/sollama run gemma4:31b-it-q4_K_M
22Qwen3.5 27BQ4_K_M19.3 GBfits in fast memory~14 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:27b-q4_K_M
23Qwen3.6 27BQ4_K_M19.3 GBfits in fast memory~14 tok/sollama run qwen3.6:27b-q4_K_M
24Gemma 3 27BQ4_K_M19.3 GBfits in fast memory~14 tok/sollama run gemma3:27b
25Qwen3.8 27BDefault20.3 GBfits in fast memory~13 tok/sollama run qwen3.8:27b
26Devstral Small 2 24BQ4_K_M16.8 GBfits in fast memory~16 tok/sollama run devstral-small-2:24b
27Bonsai 2 9B (ternary)Q2_04.6 GBfits in fast memory~75 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:9b
28Clef 27B (Cloudflare, decision)Q4_K_M22.3 GBfits in fast memory~12 tok/sollama run clef:27b-q4_K_M
29Mistral Small 24BQ8_026.8 GBfits in fast memory~10 tok/sollama run mistral-small:24b-instruct-2501-q8_0
30LFM2.5 8B-A1B (MoE)Q8_09.8 GBfits in fast memory~113 tok/sollama run lfm2.5:8b-a1b-q8_0
31Qwen3 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~15 tok/sollama run qwen3:14b-q8_0
32DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~15 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:14b-qwen-distill-q8_0
33Phi-4 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~15 tok/sollama run phi4:14b-q8_0
34Ministral 3 14BQ8_016.6 GBfits in fast memory~16 tok/sollama run ministral-3:14b-instruct-2512-q8_0
35Mistral Nemo 12BQ8_014.2 GBfits in fast memory~18 tok/sollama run mistral-nemo:12b-instruct-2407-q8_0
36Gemma 3 12BQ8_014.6 GBfits in fast memory~18 tok/sollama run gemma3:12b-it-q8_0
37Gemma 4 12BQ8_014.6 GBfits in fast memory~18 tok/sollama run gemma4:12b-it-q8_0
38Qwen3.5 9BQ8_011.4 GBfits in fast memory~24 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:9b-q8_0
39Llama 3.2 Vision 11BQ8_013.5 GBfits in fast memory~20 tok/sollama run llama3.2-vision:11b-instruct-q8_0
40Ornith-1.5 9BDefault8 GBfits in fast memory~36 tok/sollama run ornith-1.5:9b
41Nimble v3 9B (Bespoke Labs, decision)Q8_010.6 GBfits in fast memory~25 tok/sollama run nimble-v3:9b-q8_0
42Granite 4.2 8BQ8_010.3 GBfits in fast memory~26 tok/sollama run granite4.2:8b-q8_0
43Ministral 3 8BQ8_011.3 GBfits in fast memory~24 tok/sollama run ministral-3:8b-instruct-2512-q8_0
44Qwen3-VL 8BQ8_011.2 GBfits in fast memory~24 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:8b-instruct-q8_0
45Qwen3 8BQ8_09.9 GBfits in fast memory~27 tok/sollama run qwen3:8b-q8_0
46DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8BQ8_09.9 GBfits in fast memory~27 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:8b-0528-qwen3-q8_0
47DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~30 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:7b-qwen-distill-q8_0
48Qwen 2.5 VL 7BQ8_010.8 GBfits in fast memory~26 tok/sollama run qwen2.5vl:7b-q8_0
49MiniCPM-V 2.6 8BQ8_010.5 GBfits in fast memory~26 tok/sollama run minicpm-v:8b-2.6-q8_0
50Gemma 4 E4B (effective 4.5B)Q8_010.3 GBfits in fast memory~27 tok/sollama run gemma4:e4b-it-q8_0
51Clef-Flash 9B (Cloudflare, decision)Q8_012.4 GBfits in fast memory~22 tok/sollama run clef-flash:9b-q8_0
52Gemma 3n E4B (on-device)Q8_010.5 GBfits in fast memory~25 tok/sollama run gemma3n:e4b-it-q8_0
53Qwen3.5 4BQ8_06.4 GBfits in fast memory~46 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:4b-q8_0
54Gemma 4 E2B (effective 2.3B)Q8_07.2 GBfits in fast memory~40 tok/sollama run gemma4:e2b-it-q8_0
55Phi-4 Mini 3.8BQ8_04.9 GBfits in fast memory~59 tok/sollama run phi4-mini:3.8b-q8_0
56Qwen3 4BQ8_05.2 GBfits in fast memory~55 tok/sollama run qwen3:4b-q8_0
57Qwen3-VL 4BQ8_06.3 GBfits in fast memory~47 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:4b-instruct-q8_0
58DeepSeek Coder V2 Lite 16B (MoE)Q8_018 GBfits in fast memory~46 tok/sollama run deepseek-coder-v2:16b-lite-instruct-q8_0
59Granite 4.2 3BQ8_04.7 GBfits in fast memory~62 tok/sollama run granite4.2:3b-q8_0
60Gemma 3 4BQ8_06.2 GBfits in fast memory~48 tok/sollama run gemma3:4b-it-q8_0
61Gemma 3n E2B (on-device)Q8_07.8 GBfits in fast memory~35 tok/sollama run gemma3n:e2b-it-q8_0
62tev1 4B (Together AI, decision)Q8_05.4 GBfits in fast memory~52 tok/sollama run tev1:4b-q8_0
63Ministral 3 3BQ8_05.6 GBfits in fast memory~53 tok/sollama run ministral-3:3b-instruct-2512-q8_0
64Bonsai 2 4B (ternary)Q2_02.8 GBfits in fast memory~150 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:4b
65Llama 3.2 3BQ8_04.2 GBfits in fast memory~71 tok/sollama run llama3.2:3b-instruct-q8_0
66Qwen 2.5 32BQ5_K_M25.2 GBfits in fast memory~10 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:32b-instruct-q5_K_M
67Qwen 2.5 Coder 32BQ5_K_M25.2 GBfits in fast memory~10 tok/sollama run qwen2.5-coder:32b-instruct-q5_K_M
68Qwen3.5 2BQ8_03.8 GBfits in fast memory~89 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:2b-q8_0
69Qwen3-VL 2BQ8_03.8 GBfits in fast memory~89 tok/sollama run qwen3-vl:2b-instruct-q8_0
70Qwen3 1.7BQ8_02.9 GBfits in fast memory~109 tok/sollama run qwen3:1.7b-q8_0
71DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5BQ8_02.6 GBfits in fast memory~126 tok/sollama run deepseek-r1:1.5b-qwen-distill-q8_0
72SmolLM2 1.7BQ8_02.5 GBfits in fast memory~133 tok/sollama run smollm2:1.7b
73Bonsai 2 2B (ternary)Q2_02 GBfits in fast memory~264 tok/sollama run bonsai-2:2b
74Qwen 2.5 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~15 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:14b-instruct-q8_0
75Qwen 2.5 Coder 14BQ8_017.3 GBfits in fast memory~15 tok/sollama run qwen2.5-coder:14b-instruct-q8_0
76GLM-OCR 0.9BBF163.7 GBfits in fast memory~89 tok/sollama run glm-ocr:latest
77MiniCPM-V 4.6 1BQ8_02.9 GBfits in fast memory~126 tok/sollama run minicpm-v4.6:q8_0
78Llama 3.2 1BQ8_02 GBfits in fast memory~185 tok/sollama run llama3.2:1b
79Llama 3.1 8BQ8_09.5 GBfits in fast memory~28 tok/sollama run llama3.1:8b-instruct-q8_0
80LFM2.5 1.2B ThinkingQ8_01.9 GBfits in fast memory~200 tok/sollama run lfm2.5-thinking:1.2b-q8_0
81Qwen 2.5 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~30 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:7b-instruct-q8_0
82Qwen 2.5 Coder 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~30 tok/sollama run qwen2.5-coder:7b-instruct-q8_0
83Mistral 7B v0.3Q8_08.7 GBfits in fast memory~31 tok/sollama run mistral:7b-instruct-q8_0
84LLaVA 1.6 7BQ8_09.1 GBfits in fast memory~31 tok/sollama run llava:7b-v1.6-vicuna-q8_0
85Code Llama 7BQ8_08.1 GBfits in fast memory~33 tok/sollama run codellama:7b-instruct-q8_0
86Gemma 3 1BQ8_01.8 GBfits in fast memory~218 tok/sollama run gemma3:1b-it-q8_0
87Qwen3.5 0.8BQ8_02 GBfits in fast memory~240 tok/sollama run qwen3.5:0.8b-q8_0
88Qwen3 0.6BQ8_01.5 GBfits in fast memory~289 tok/sollama run qwen3:0.6b-q8_0
89Qwen 2.5 3BQ8_04.1 GBfits in fast memory~73 tok/sollama run qwen2.5:3b-instruct-q8_0
90SmolLM2 360MFP161.3 GBfits in fast memory~329 tok/sollama run smollm2:360m
91SmolLM2 135MFP160.9 GBfits in fast memory~889 tok/sollama run smollm2:135m
92Qwen 2.5 Coder 1.5BQ8_02.3 GBfits in fast memory~150 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