Apple128 GB VRAM546 GB/s$0/hr

Qwen 3 14B on Mac M4 Max (128GB): Does It Fit, How Fast, What It Costs

Qwen 3 14B at FP16 needs 28.0 GB for its weights and 38.7 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
38.7 GB needed / 128 GB available
Decode speed
12.68
tok/s per stream
Aggregate
152.1
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 GB38.7 GB12.68152.127.09 s—✓
2× Mac256 GB38.7 GB21.55517.113.57 s—✓
4× Mac512 GB38.7 GB43.1020696.80 s—✓
8× Mac1024 GB38.7 GB86.1982743.41 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?
4K149687.2 MB✓ fits
8K741.34 GB✓ fits
33K185.37 GB✓ fits
66K910.74 GB✓ fits
131K421.47 GB✓ fits
Other GPUs that run Qwen 3 14B
Same workload, same quantization — ranked by value (tokens per dollar-hour).
GPUGPUsAggregate tok/sCost / 1M tok
RTX 5090 32GB2×1697$0.1637
AMD MI300X 192GB1×1476$0.4704
A100 40GB SXM41×431.8$0.5790
AMD MI325X 288GB1×1671$0.5817
A100 80GB SXM41×557.1$0.5983
Intel Gaudi 3 128GB1×919.3$0.6043
Frequently asked questions

Can Qwen 3 14B run on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

Yes. Qwen 3 14B at FP16 needs 38.7 GB including the KV cache, and Mac M4 Max (128GB) has 128 GB — so it fits on a single GPU.

How fast is Qwen 3 14B on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

12.68 tokens/sec per stream and 152.1 tok/s aggregate with continuous batching at 8 concurrent users. Time to first token is 27.09 s, and inter-token latency is 78.9 ms.

What does Qwen 3 14B 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 Qwen 3 14B need on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

28.0 GB for the weights at FP16, plus 10.7 GB of KV cache for 8 concurrent requests at 8K context — 38.7 GB total. Every extra concurrent user at long context costs more, so leave headroom.

Is Mac M4 Max (128GB) the right choice for Qwen 3 14B?

It works. Compare — per 1M tokens against the alternatives below — the cheapest option that fits the same workload is 4× RTX 3080 10GB at $0.0772, and the fastest is 1× Cerebras CS-3 (WSE-3) at 5571 tok/s.

Adjust the workload yourself

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

Open in calculator