What can MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max run for creative?

Build: MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max + — + 128 GB RAM (macos)

Memory: 128 GB unified memory
Runner: MLX-LM (Apple Metal)
AnyChatCodingAgentsReasoningVisionLong contextCreative

Runs comfortably
248 models

Ranked by fit for creative use case + predicted speed. Click a row for VRAM breakdown.

#1Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 8B
8B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 13.4 GBHeadroom: 106.6 GB
ollama run hermes3:8b
35
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
8.50 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
0.43 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#2Gemma 2 9B Instruct
9B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 15.3 GBHeadroom: 104.7 GB
ollama run gemma2:9b
31
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
9.80 GB
KV cache
4.50 GB
Activations
0.50 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#3Hermes 3 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 3.9 GBHeadroom: 116.1 GB
166
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.80 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#4Dolphin 3.0 Llama 3.2 3B
3B
dolphin
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 3.9 GBHeadroom: 116.1 GB
166
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.80 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#5Hermes 3 Llama 3.1 70B
70B
hermes
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 77.5 GBHeadroom: 42.5 GB
ollama run hermes3:70b
7
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
40.00 GB
KV cache
35.00 GB
Activations
2.01 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#6Dolphin 3.0 8B
8B
dolphin
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.8 GBHeadroom: 110.2 GB
ollama run dolphin3:8b
62
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
5.00 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
0.26 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#7Gemma 2 2B Instruct
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 2.7 GBHeadroom: 117.3 GB
249
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.10 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.06 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#8Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 3.8 GBHeadroom: 116.2 GB
ollama run gemma4:e2b
141
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
2.20 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.12 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#9Qwen 3 1.7B
1.7B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 2.3 GBHeadroom: 117.7 GB
293
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
0.90 GB
KV cache
0.85 GB
Activations
0.05 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#10DeepSeek V2 Lite Chat
15.7B
deepseek
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 17.4 GBHeadroom: 102.6 GB
207
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
8.60 GB
KV cache
7.85 GB
Activations
0.44 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#11Kumru 2B
2.4B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 3.3 GBHeadroom: 116.7 GB
ollama run alibayram/kumru:latest
207
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.50 GB
KV cache
1.20 GB
Activations
0.08 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →
#12Qwen 3.5 2B Turkish SFT
2B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 2.7 GBHeadroom: 117.3 GB
249
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.10 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.06 GB
Runtime
0.50 GB
Model details →

What if you upgraded?

Hypothetical scenarios. We re-ran the compatibility engine for each.

Move up an Apple memory tier

~$200–400 over base

On Apple Silicon, more unified memory is the only path forward — VRAM and system RAM are the same pool.

Shop this upgrade↗

Some links above are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How we make money.

Won't run
top 5 popular models

Need more memory than you have. Shown for orientation.

DeepSeek V4 Pro (1.6T MoE)
1600B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Needs ~1024 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 120 GB available after OS overhead.

—
Qwen 3.5 235B-A17B (MoE)
397B
qwen
Commercial OK

Needs ~256 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 120 GB available after OS overhead.

—
Qwen 3 235B-A22B
235B
qwen
Commercial OK

Needs ~160 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 120 GB available after OS overhead.

—
DeepSeek R1 (671B reasoning)
671B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Needs ~420 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 120 GB available after OS overhead.

—
DeepSeek V4 Flash (284B MoE)
284B
deepseek
Commercial OK

Needs ~192 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 120 GB available after OS overhead.

—

How to read these numbers

Measured here
Measured here - RunLocalAI ran this exact combo on owner hardware with public evidence.

Source-backed
Source-backed / community - a reproduced public source supports the speed, but it is not labeled as owner-measured.

Extrapolated
Extrapolated - predicted from a measured benchmark on similar-bandwidth hardware.

Estimated
Estimated - formula based on VRAM bandwidth and model architecture; not a benchmark row.

RunLocalAI Will-It-Run Framework →

Want a specific benchmark we don't have? Email Contact support and we'll prioritize it.