RUNLOCALAIv38
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RUNLOCALAI · v38
Will it run? / MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max / vision

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

Build: MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max + — + 32 GB RAM (windows)

Memory: 32 GB unified memory
Runner: llama.cpp (Metal)
AnyChatCodingAgentsReasoningVisionLong contextCreative

Runs comfortably
21 models

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

#1Gemma 4 E2B (Effective 2B)
2B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 3.9 GBHeadroom: 20.1 GB
ollama run gemma4:e2b
159
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
2.13 GB
KV cache
1.00 GB
Activations
0.11 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#2Phi-3.5 Vision
4.2B
phi
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 5.5 GBHeadroom: 18.5 GB
133
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
2.54 GB
KV cache
2.10 GB
Activations
0.14 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#3Moondream 2
1.9B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 2.1 GBHeadroom: 21.9 GB
295
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.15 GB
KV cache
0.24 GB
Activations
0.06 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#4Qwen 2.5-VL 3B
3B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 4.1 GBHeadroom: 19.9 GB
187
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
1.81 GB
KV cache
1.50 GB
Activations
0.10 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#5LLaVA 1.6 Mistral 7B
7B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 8.6 GBHeadroom: 15.4 GB
80
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#6LLaVA-OneVision 7B
7B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 8.6 GBHeadroom: 15.4 GB
80
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#7Qwen 2-VL 7B
7B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 8.6 GBHeadroom: 15.4 GB
80
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#8Janus-Pro 7B
7B
janus
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 4,096VRAM: 6.9 GBHeadroom: 17.1 GB
80
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
1.75 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#9Qwen 2.5-VL 7B
7B
qwen
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 8.6 GBHeadroom: 15.4 GB
80
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.23 GB
KV cache
3.50 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#10Gemma 4 E4B (Effective 4B)
4B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 7.2 GBHeadroom: 16.8 GB
ollama run gemma4:e4b
80
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.25 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#11Gemma 3 4B
4B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 7.2 GBHeadroom: 16.8 GB
ollama run gemma3:4b
80
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.25 GB
KV cache
2.00 GB
Activations
0.22 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
#12MiniCPM-V 3 8B
8B
minicpm
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 8,192VRAM: 9.8 GBHeadroom: 14.2 GB
70
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
4.83 GB
KV cache
4.00 GB
Activations
0.25 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →

Runs with tradeoffs
7 models

Tight VRAM, partial CPU offload, or context-limited.

Gemma 3 12B
12B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 20.1 GBHeadroom: 3.9 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.9 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:12b
27
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
12.75 GB
KV cache
6.00 GB
Activations
0.65 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Pixtral 12B
12B
mistral
Commercial OK
Quant: Q8_0Context: 8,192VRAM: 20.1 GBHeadroom: 3.9 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.9 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run pixtral:12b
27
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
12.75 GB
KV cache
6.00 GB
Activations
0.65 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Gemma 4 26B MoE
26B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 20.4 GBHeadroom: 3.6 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.6 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma4:26b-moe
22
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
15.70 GB
KV cache
3.25 GB
Activations
0.79 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
InternVL 2.5 26B
26B
other
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 20.4 GBHeadroom: 3.6 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 3.6 GB headroom left for context growth
22
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
15.70 GB
KV cache
3.25 GB
Activations
0.79 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
Gemma 3 27B
27B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 21.2 GBHeadroom: 2.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.8 GB headroom left for context growth
ollama run gemma3:27b
21
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
16.30 GB
KV cache
3.38 GB
Activations
0.82 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
MedGemma 27B
27B
gemma
Quant: Q4_K_MContext: 2,048VRAM: 21.2 GBHeadroom: 2.8 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 2.8 GB headroom left for context growth
21
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
16.30 GB
KV cache
3.38 GB
Activations
0.82 GB
Runtime
0.70 GB
Model details →
PaliGemma 2 10B
10B
gemma
Commercial OK
Quant: BF16Context: 2,048VRAM: 23.0 GBHeadroom: 1.0 GB
  • • Tight VRAM fit — only 1.0 GB headroom left for context growth
17
tok/s
Estimated
Weights
20.00 GB
KV cache
1.25 GB
Activations
1.00 GB
Runtime
0.70 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 24 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 24 GB available after OS overhead.

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

Needs ~160 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 GB available after OS overhead.

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

Needs ~420 GB unified memory minimum at smallest quant; you have 24 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 24 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 →

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