Apple64 GB VRAM400 GB/s$0/hr

Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM) on Mac M3 Max (64GB): Does It Fit, How Fast, What It Costs

Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM) at FP16 needs 14.0 GB for its weights and 17.8 GB in total at 8K context with 8 concurrent users. That means it fits on a single Mac M3 Max (64GB). Every figure is computed by tokcalc's open-source capacity model.

Fits?
Yes, 1 GPU
17.8 GB needed / 64 GB available
Decode speed
18.57
tok/s per stream
Aggregate
222.9
tok/s @ 8 concurrent
Cost / 1M tokens
—
1× Mac M3 Max (64GB) · quote required
What changes as you add Mac M3 Max (64GB)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× Mac64 GB17.8 GB18.57222.916.47 s—✓
2× Mac128 GB17.8 GB31.57757.78.25 s—✓
4× Mac256 GB17.8 GB63.1430314.14 s—✓
8× Mac512 GB17.8 GB126.3121232.09 s—✓
Concurrency vs context length
On 1× Mac M3 Max (64GB) at FP16. KV cache scales linearly with context, so this is the number of users your GPUs can actually serve.
ContextConcurrent usersKV per requestFits?
4K212240.5 MB✓ fits
8K106481.0 MB✓ fits
33K261.88 GB✓ fits
66K133.76 GB✓ fits
131K67.52 GB✓ fits
Other GPUs that run Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM)
Same workload, same quantization — ranked by value (tokens per dollar-hour).
GPUGPUsAggregate tok/sCost / 1M tok
RTX 3090 24GB1×521.5$0.1332
RTX 5090 32GB1×998.4$0.1391
RTX 4090 24GB1×561.6$0.1978
AMD MI300X 192GB1×2953$0.2352
V100 SXM2 32GB1×501.4$0.2770
A100 40GB SXM41×863.6$0.2895
Frequently asked questions

Can Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM) run on Mac M3 Max (64GB)?

Yes. Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM) at FP16 needs 17.8 GB including the KV cache, and Mac M3 Max (64GB) has 64 GB — so it fits on a single GPU.

How fast is Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM) on Mac M3 Max (64GB)?

18.57 tokens/sec per stream and 222.9 tok/s aggregate with continuous batching at 8 concurrent users. Time to first token is 16.47 s, and inter-token latency is 53.8 ms.

What does Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM) on Mac M3 Max (64GB) cost per million tokens?

— per 1M output tokens at 1× Mac M3 Max (64GB). That is the marginal hardware cost — add idle capacity, ops, and egress for the real figure.

How much VRAM does Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM) need on Mac M3 Max (64GB)?

14.0 GB for the weights at FP16, plus 3.8 GB of KV cache for 8 concurrent requests at 8K context — 17.8 GB total. Every extra concurrent user at long context costs more, so leave headroom.

Is Mac M3 Max (64GB) the right choice for Qwen 2.5-VL 7B (VLM)?

It works. Compare — per 1M tokens against the alternatives below — the cheapest option that fits the same workload is 2× RTX 3080 10GB at $0.0772, and the fastest is 1× Cerebras CS-3 (WSE-3) at 11143 tok/s.

Adjust the workload yourself

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

Open in calculator