Tools / LLM GPU calculator / 512 GB Mac Studio
What LLMs can run on a 512 GB Mac Studio?
Which of 22 open LLMs fit one 512 GB Mac Studio, and how many it takes for the rest, at FP16, FP8 and 4-bit.
Short answer
One 512 GB Mac Studio (about 384 GB usable by the GPU) runs 20 of the 22 open LLMs sized here at 4-bit, 18 at FP8 and 17 at FP16, for one user at an 8K context. At 4-bit: every model except DeepSeek-V3 / R1 and GLM-5.3. The largest that fits one Mac is Llama 3.1 405B (405.9B parameters), at 4-bit. Bigger models split their layers across several Macs: DeepSeek-V3 / R1 takes 2 at 4-bit.
Updated . One user, 8K context, KV cache at FP16, plus 10% headroom for activations and the runtime.
Every model on the 512 GB Mac Studio
| Model | FP16/BF16 | FP8 | 4-bit (INT4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.1 8B | 1 Mac19 GB | 1 Mac10 GB | 1 Mac6.1 GB |
| Qwen3 8B | 1 Mac20 GB | 1 Mac10 GB | 1 Mac6.3 GB |
| Qwen3 14B | 1 Mac34 GB | 1 Mac18 GB | 1 Mac11 GB |
| Phi-4 14B | 1 Mac35 GB | 1 Mac18 GB | 1 Mac11 GB |
| gpt-oss-20b | 1 Mac47 GB | 1 Mac23 GB | 1 Mac13 GB |
| LFM2.5-24B-A2B | 1 Mac54 GB | 1 Mac27 GB | 1 Mac15 GB |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | 1 Mac55 GB | 1 Mac28 GB | 1 Mac16 GB |
| Gemma 3 27B | 1 Mac62 GB | 1 Mac32 GB | 1 Mac18 GB |
| Qwen3-30B-A3B | 1 Mac69 GB | 1 Mac35 GB | 1 Mac20 GB |
| Qwen3 32B | 1 Mac75 GB | 1 Mac39 GB | 1 Mac22 GB |
| Qwen2.5 32B | 1 Mac75 GB | 1 Mac39 GB | 1 Mac22 GB |
| Mixtral 8x7B | 1 Mac105 GB | 1 Mac53 GB | 1 Mac30 GB |
| Llama 3.3 70B | 1 Mac160 GB | 1 Mac81 GB | 1 Mac46 GB |
| Qwen2.5 72B | 1 Mac165 GB | 1 Mac84 GB | 1 Mac47 GB |
| Kolibri-1 | 1 Mac174 GB | 1 Mac87 GB | 1 Mac48 GB |
| Llama 4 Scout | 1 Mac243 GB | 1 Mac122 GB | 1 Mac68 GB |
| gpt-oss-120b | 1 Mac260 GB | 1 Mac130 GB | 1 Mac72 GB |
| Qwen3-235B-A22B | 2 Macs524 GB | 1 Mac263 GB | 1 Mac145 GB |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 3 Macs894 GB | 2 Macs448 GB | 1 Mac247 GB |
| Llama 3.1 405B | 3 Macs907 GB | 2 Macs456 GB | 1 Mac253 GB |
| DeepSeek-V3 / R1 | 4 Macs1,492 GB | 2 Macs746 GB | 2 Macs411 GB |
| GLM-5.3 | 5 Macs1,654 GB | 3 Macs827 GB | 2 Macs455 GB |
Counts are for a layer split, which works with any number of Macs. Below each count is the memory needed: (weights + KV cache) ÷ 0.9. Capacity only: speed depends on memory bandwidth and the serving stack.
Memory is step one. Throughput, latency, power and the network decide the real build.
Size my actual workload512 GB Mac Studio specifications
- Memory
- 512 GB unified, about 384 GB usable by the GPU
- Memory bandwidth
- 1,200 GB/s
- Typical system
- Desktop
- Counted as
- Layer split across cards (llama.cpp style)
Questions about the 512 GB Mac Studio
What LLMs can run on a 512 GB Mac Studio?
For one user at an 8K context, these fit one 512 GB Mac Studio. At 4-bit: every model except DeepSeek-V3 / R1 and GLM-5.3. At FP8: every model except Llama 3.1 405B, Llama 4 Maverick, DeepSeek-V3 / R1 and GLM-5.3. At FP16/BF16: every model except Llama 3.1 405B, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen3-235B-A22B, DeepSeek-V3 / R1 and GLM-5.3. That counts the 384 GB of unified memory macOS lets the GPU use by default.
What is the largest LLM a 512 GB Mac Studio can run?
Of the models sized here, for one user at an 8K context: at 4-bit, Llama 3.1 405B (405.9B parameters, 253 GB); at FP8, Qwen3-235B-A22B (235.1B parameters, 263 GB); at FP16, gpt-oss-120b (116.8B parameters, 260 GB). Mixture-of-experts models count every expert, because all of them must be in memory.
How many 512 GB Mac Studios does Llama 3.3 70B need?
For one user at an 8K context it needs 160 GB at FP16/BF16, 81 GB at FP8 and 46 GB at 4-bit: one Mac at FP16, FP8 or 4-bit.
Can a 512 GB Mac Studio run DeepSeek-V3 / R1?
Not on one Mac: with all 671B parameters resident it needs 746 GB at FP8 and 411 GB at 4-bit for one user at an 8K context. That is 2 Macs at FP8 or 4-bit, with a layer split.
Can I combine several 512 GB Mac Studios?
Yes, with a layer split: each Mac holds some of the model's layers, as llama.cpp does. Memory adds up across them; speed does not, because they take turns on each token. The counts on this page assume a layer split.
Other GPUs
- L40S
- RTX PRO 6000 Workstation
- RTX PRO 6000 Server
- H100 SXM
- H100 NVL
- H200
- B200
- B300
- Instinct MI300X
- Instinct MI355X
- RTX 3090
- RTX 4090
- RTX 5090
- 96 GB Mac Studio
- 256 GB Mac Studio
Different context length, more users, or a model that isn’t listed? The LLM GPU calculator sizes any Hugging Face model for any of these GPUs.
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