Apple128 GB VRAM546 GB/s$0/hr

Qwen 3 32B on Mac M4 Max (128GB): Does It Fit, How Fast, What It Costs

Qwen 3 32B at FP8 (E4M3) needs 32.0 GB for its weights and 49.2 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
49.2 GB needed / 128 GB available
Decode speed
16.64
tok/s per stream
Aggregate
132.8
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 GB49.2 GB16.64132.861.77 s—✓
2× Mac256 GB49.2 GB28.28531.330.91 s—✓
4× Mac512 GB49.2 GB56.56212515.47 s—✓
8× Mac1024 GB49.2 GB113.185007.75 s—✓
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?
4K891.07 GB✓ fits
8K442.15 GB✓ fits
33K118.59 GB✓ fits
66K517.18 GB✓ fits
131K234.36 GB✓ fits
Other GPUs that run Qwen 3 32B
Same workload, same quantization — ranked by value (tokens per dollar-hour).
GPUGPUsAggregate tok/sCost / 1M tok
RTX 5090 32GB2×2228$0.1247
AMD MI300X 192GB1×1938$0.3584
L40S 48GB2×1074$0.3621
AMD MI325X 288GB1×2194$0.4432
A100 80GB SXM41×731.3$0.4558
Intel Gaudi 3 128GB1×1207$0.4604
Frequently asked questions

Can Qwen 3 32B run on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

Yes. Qwen 3 32B at FP8 (E4M3) needs 49.2 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 32B on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

16.64 tokens/sec per stream and 132.8 tok/s aggregate with continuous batching at 8 concurrent users. Time to first token is 61.77 s, and inter-token latency is 60.1 ms.

What does Qwen 3 32B 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 32B need on Mac M4 Max (128GB)?

32.0 GB for the weights at FP8 (E4M3), plus 17.2 GB of KV cache for 8 concurrent requests at 8K context — 49.2 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 32B?

It works. Compare — per 1M tokens against the alternatives below — the cheapest option that fits the same workload is 8× RTX 3080 10GB at $0.0294, and the fastest is 2× Cerebras CS-3 (WSE-3) at 24863 tok/s.

Adjust the workload yourself

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

Open in calculator