Every open model in our directory, ranked by how well it runs on MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Max (2026) (128GB) at 4-bit. Grades weigh whether the model fits in memory and how fast it should run.
MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Max (2026) has 128 GB of VRAM, enough to run 155 of the 169 open models we track at 4-bit. The largest that still fits well is Kimi K2 Instruct (1000B), and the top-rated is Mixtral 8x7B Instruct at about 43 tok/s.
155 of 169 models run comfortably on MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Max (2026).
See full MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Max (2026) specs and pricingThe top models this device can run at 4-bit, ranked by fit and speed.
| Model | Grade | Speed | VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mixtral 8x7B InstructMistral AI | SS | 43.5 tok/s | 11.4 GB |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B ITGoogle | SS | 44.9 tok/s | 11.0 GB |
| DiffusionGemma 26B-A4BGoogle | SS | 47.1 tok/s | 10.5 GB |
| North Mini CodeCohere | SS | 59.0 tok/s | 8.4 GB |
| Nemotron 3 Nano Omni |
Mixtral 8x7B Instruct is the highest-rated model that runs on MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Max (2026) at 4-bit, at about 43 tok/s. In total, MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Max (2026) can run 155 of the 169 open models we track.
We size each model at 4-bit (Q4_K_M), add the KV cache for its context length and a fixed runtime overhead, then compare that to this device VRAM. Each model is graded on how comfortably it fits and how fast it should run on this card.
It is an estimate of decode speed in tokens per second at 4-bit, based on this device memory bandwidth and each model size. Real speed depends on your runtime, batch size, and context length, so use it to compare models, not as a hard promise.
Lower-bit quantization shrinks a model so more of them fit. These grades already assume 4-bit, which is the common local default. Going below 4-bit can squeeze a larger model in at some quality cost; going above needs more VRAM and may not fit.
| SS |
| 57.9 tok/s |
| 8.5 GB |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba | SS | 57.9 tok/s | 8.5 GB |
| Qwen3.5-35B-A3BAlibaba | SS | 57.9 tok/s | 8.5 GB |
| Qwen3-30B-A3BAlibaba | SS | 91.8 tok/s | 5.4 GB |
| Llama 2 13B ChatMeta | AA | 58.4 tok/s | 8.5 GB |
| Llama 3 8B InstructMeta | AA | 87.3 tok/s | 5.7 GB |
| Carnice-9b for Hermes agentkai-os | AA | 82.2 tok/s | 6.0 GB |
| LFM2.5-8B-A1BLiquid AI | AA | 170.1 tok/s | 2.9 GB |
Mixtral 8x7B InstructMistral AI | 46.7B(12.9B active) | SS | 43.5 tok/s | 11.4 GB | |
Gemma 4 26B-A4B ITGoogle | 26B(4B active) | SS | 44.9 tok/s | 11.0 GB | |
DiffusionGemma 26B-A4BGoogle | 25.2B(3.8B active) | SS | 47.1 tok/s | 10.5 GB | |
North Mini CodeCohere | 30B(3B active) | SS | 59.0 tok/s | 8.4 GB | |
Nemotron 3 Nano OmniNVIDIA | 30B(3B active) | SS | 57.9 tok/s | 8.5 GB | |
Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba | 35B(3B active) | SS | 57.9 tok/s | 8.5 GB | |
Qwen3.5-35B-A3BAlibaba | 35B(3B active) | SS | 57.9 tok/s | 8.5 GB | |
Qwen3-30B-A3BAlibaba | 30B(3B active) | SS | 91.8 tok/s | 5.4 GB | |
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Llama 2 13B ChatMeta | 13B | AA | 58.4 tok/s | 8.5 GB | |
| 8B | AA | 87.3 tok/s | 5.7 GB | ||
| 9B | AA | 82.2 tok/s | 6.0 GB | ||
LFM2.5-8B-A1BLiquid AI | 8.3B(1.5B active) | AA | 170.1 tok/s | 2.9 GB | |
| 8B | AA | 37.1 tok/s | 13.3 GB | ||
Gemma 4 E4B ITGoogle | 4B | AA | 71.5 tok/s | 6.9 GB | |
Gemma 3 4B ITGoogle | 4B | AA | 71.5 tok/s | 6.9 GB | |
Mistral 7B InstructMistral AI | 7B | AA | 77.3 tok/s | 6.4 GB | |
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PersonaPlex 7BNVIDIA | 7B | AA | 103.2 tok/s | 4.8 GB | |
Llama 2 7B ChatMeta | 7B | AA | 103.2 tok/s | 4.8 GB | |
minimax-m2.5MiniMax | 230B(10B active) | AA | 21.8 tok/s | 22.7 GB | |
Gemma 4 E2B ITGoogle | 2B | AA | 133.3 tok/s | 3.7 GB | |
VibeThinker-3BWeiboAI | 3B | AA | 129.6 tok/s | 3.8 GB | |
Qwen3.5-122B-A10BAlibaba | 122B(10B active) | AA | 18.1 tok/s | 27.3 GB | |
Qwen3-235B-A22BAlibaba | 235B(22B active) | BB | 13.6 tok/s | 36.3 GB | |
Mistral Large 3 675BMistral AI | 675B(41B active) | BB | 7.5 tok/s | 66.3 GB | |
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DeepSeek-V3DeepSeek | 671B(37B active) | BB | 8.3 tok/s | 59.8 GB | |
Model Compatibility
Use the calculator to weigh this device against any other, model by model, with speed and fit scores.
Mixture-of-experts models only activate a fraction of their parameters at a time, so their runtime memory is closer to the active size than the headline size. We score fit on the active parameters, which is why some very large models still fit.
