Apple128 GB VRAM546 GB/s$0/hr

Qwen 3 30B-A3B (MoE) on Mac M4 Max (128GB): Does It Fit, How Fast, What It Costs

Qwen 3 30B-A3B (MoE) at FP8 (E4M3) needs 30.0 GB for its weights and 36.4 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
36.4 GB needed / 128 GB available
Decode speed
177.5
tok/s per stream
Aggregate
1417
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 GB36.4 GB177.514175.82 s—✓
2× Mac256 GB36.4 GB301.756672.92 s—✓
4× Mac512 GB36.4 GB603.3226671.48 s—✓
8× Mac1024 GB36.4 GB120790667753.7 ms—✓
Concurrency vs context length
On 1× Mac M4 Max (128GB) at FP8 (E4M3). KV cache scales linearly with context, so this is the number of users your GPUs can actually serve.
ContextConcurrent usersKV per requestFits?
4K243412.3 MB✓ fits
8K121824.6 MB✓ fits
33K303.22 GB✓ fits
66K156.44 GB✓ fits
131K712.88 GB✓ fits
Other GPUs that run Qwen 3 30B-A3B (MoE)
Same workload, same quantization — ranked by value (tokens per dollar-hour).
GPUGPUsAggregate tok/sCost / 1M tok
RTX 5090 32GB2×23762$0.0117
AMD MI300X 192GB1×20670$0.0336
A100 40GB SXM41×6045$0.0414
AMD MI325X 288GB1×23400$0.0415
A100 80GB SXM41×7800$0.0427
Intel Gaudi 3 128GB1×12870$0.0432
Frequently asked questions

Can Qwen 3 30B-A3B (MoE) run on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

Yes. Qwen 3 30B-A3B (MoE) at FP8 (E4M3) needs 36.4 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 30B-A3B (MoE) on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

177.5 tokens/sec per stream and 1417 tok/s aggregate with continuous batching at 8 concurrent users. Time to first token is 5.82 s, and inter-token latency is 5.6 ms.

What does Qwen 3 30B-A3B (MoE) 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 30B-A3B (MoE) need on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

30.0 GB for the weights at FP8 (E4M3), plus 6.4 GB of KV cache for 8 concurrent requests at 8K context — 36.4 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 30B-A3B (MoE)?

It works. Compare — per 1M tokens against the alternatives below — the cheapest option that fits the same workload is 4× RTX 3080 10GB at $0.005513, and the fastest is 1× Cerebras CS-3 (WSE-3) at 78000 tok/s.

Adjust the workload yourself

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

Open in calculator