Apple128 GB VRAM546 GB/s$0/hr

Llama 2 7B on Mac M4 Max (128GB): Does It Fit, How Fast, What It Costs

Llama 2 7B at FP16 needs 13.5 GB for its weights and 47.8 GB in total at 8K context with 8 concurrent users. That means it fits on a single Mac M4 Max (128GB). Every figure is computed by tokcalc's open-source capacity model.

Fits?
Yes, 1 GPU
47.8 GB needed / 128 GB available
Decode speed
26.33
tok/s per stream
Aggregate
315.9
tok/s @ 8 concurrent
Cost / 1M tokens
—
1× Mac M4 Max (128GB) · quote required
What changes as you add Mac M4 Max (128GB)s
Tensor-parallel degree vs VRAM, throughput, and cost. Cost scales linearly with GPU count; decode throughput scales near-linearly too, so cost per token stays roughly flat.
GPUsTotal VRAMVRAM neededDecode tok/sAggregate tok/sTTFTCost / 1M tokFits?
1× Mac128 GB47.8 GB26.33315.913.06 s—✓
2× Mac256 GB47.8 GB44.7610746.55 s—✓
4× Mac512 GB47.8 GB89.5142973.29 s—✓
8× Mac1024 GB47.8 GB179.0171871.66 s—✓
Concurrency vs context length
On 1× Mac M4 Max (128GB) at FP16. KV cache scales linearly with context, so this is the number of users your GPUs can actually serve.
ContextConcurrent usersKV per requestFits?
4K532.15 GB✓ fits
8K264.29 GB✓ fits
33K617.18 GB✓ fits
66K334.36 GB✓ fits
131K168.72 GB✓ fits
Other GPUs that run Llama 2 7B
Same workload, same quantization — ranked by value (tokens per dollar-hour).
GPUGPUsAggregate tok/sCost / 1M tok
RTX 5090 32GB2×3526$0.0788
AMD MI300X 192GB1×3067$0.2264
AMD MI325X 288GB1×3472$0.2800
A100 80GB SXM41×1157$0.2880
Intel Gaudi 3 128GB1×1909$0.2909
H100 SXM5 80GB1×1938$0.3583
Frequently asked questions

Can Llama 2 7B run on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

Yes. Llama 2 7B at FP16 needs 47.8 GB including the KV cache, and Mac M4 Max (128GB) has 128 GB — so it fits on a single GPU.

How fast is Llama 2 7B on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

26.33 tokens/sec per stream and 315.9 tok/s aggregate with continuous batching at 8 concurrent users. Time to first token is 13.06 s, and inter-token latency is 38.0 ms.

What does Llama 2 7B on Mac M4 Max (128GB) cost per million tokens?

— per 1M output tokens at 1× Mac M4 Max (128GB). That is the marginal hardware cost — add idle capacity, ops, and egress for the real figure.

How much VRAM does Llama 2 7B need on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

13.5 GB for the weights at FP16, plus 34.4 GB of KV cache for 8 concurrent requests at 8K context — 47.8 GB total. Every extra concurrent user at long context costs more, so leave headroom.

Is Mac M4 Max (128GB) the right choice for Llama 2 7B?

It works. Compare — per 1M tokens against the alternatives below — the cheapest option that fits the same workload is 8× RTX 3080 10GB at $0.0186, and the fastest is 2× Cerebras CS-3 (WSE-3) at 39347 tok/s.

Adjust the workload yourself

Same formulas, your context length, concurrency, and quantisation.

Open in calculator