Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2026, M5 Max 40-core GPU): which AI models can it run?
Estimated from the specifications below. Choose the memory size you have or plan to buy, then read the table for that size.
Specifications
- Brand
- Apple
- Year
- 2026
- Chip
- Apple M5 Max
- Processor
- 18-core CPU (6 super, 12 performance)
- Graphics
- 40-core GPU
- Memory type
- unified memory
- Memory options
- 128 GB (a ceiling: the maker prints only the maximum)
- Memory bandwidth
- 614 GB/s
Sources: https://support.apple.com/en-us/126319, https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-with-all-new-m5-pro-and-m5-max/
Apple lists 614GB/s for the 40-core GPU variant and up to 128GB for M5 Max. Smaller options are not listed here because the Apple pages conflict.
With 128 GB of memory
About 89.6 GB of it can hold a model.
| Model | Fit | Needs (GB) | Writing speed (tokens per second) | Speed | Quality | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.2 3B llama3.2:3b |
Fits | 5 | 75 to 140 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 4B qwen3:4b · thinks first |
Fits | 6 | 60 to 112 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Gemma 3 4B gemma3:4b |
Fits | 6.7 | 46 to 85 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Mistral 7B v0.3 mistral:7b |
Fits | 7.8 | 34 to 63 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Llama 3.1 8B llama3.1:8b |
Fits | 8.3 | 31 to 57 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 8B qwen3:8b · thinks first |
Fits | 8.9 | 29 to 54 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Gemma 3 12B gemma3:12b |
Fits | 15.9 | 19 to 34 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| DeepSeek-R1 Distill Qwen 14B deepseek-r1:14b · thinks first |
Fits | 13.7 | 17 to 31 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Phi-4 14B phi4:14b |
Fits | 13.9 | 17 to 31 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 14B qwen3:14b · thinks first |
Fits | 13.4 | 16 to 30 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| gpt-oss 20B gpt-oss:20b · thinks first |
Fits | 16.5 | 37 to 70 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Gemma 3 27B gemma3:27b |
Fits | 27.2 | 8.8 to 16 | Unclear could be Moderate or Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Qwen3 30B (A3B) qwen3:30b · thinks first |
Fits | 22.6 | 44 to 82 | Fast | 9.3/10 | Estimated |
| Qwen3 32B qwen3:32b · thinks first |
Fits | 26.3 | 7.5 to 14 | Unclear could be Moderate or Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
| Llama 3.1 70B llama3.1:70b |
Fits | 51.5 | 3.5 to 6.5 | Unclear could be Slow or Moderate | not measured yet | Estimated |
| gpt-oss 120B gpt-oss:120b · thinks first |
Fits | 70.5 | 32 to 59 | Fast | not measured yet | Estimated |
Models marked "thinks first" can write out their reasoning before they answer, so a job takes longer than the speed alone suggests.
Reported by others
Other people ran the standard llama-bench test on this chip and published the results. They are not Hardwarerig scores. The test uses a small 7-billion-parameter model, so larger models will be slower than these figures. All published benchmarks.
| Setup | Model and size | Writing speed (tokens per second) | Reading speed (tokens per second) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 graphics cores | Llama 2 7B, Q8_0 | 72.4 | 3144 | llama.cpp discussion 4167 read 2026-10-10 |
| 40 graphics cores | Llama 2 7B, Q4_0 | 119.9 | 3220 | llama.cpp discussion 4167 read 2026-10-10 |
Reported by others, not tested by us. Results come from a public community thread; builds and settings differ between submitters.
Editing, gaming, CAD and other work
Each app below publishes a minimum and a recommended system requirement. We compare them with this laptop's memory and graphics memory. We do not judge the graphics chip's class, the processor generation or the operating system, because the makers describe those in words: check the source link for the exact card, processor and system they name. Many apps and games run only on Windows or only on macOS. Integrated graphics count as below any requirement for a dedicated card. Not known means the maker does not state this laptop's graphics memory.
Labels follow the makers' published lists. All use cases.
Speed is the speed of writing an answer, shown as a range. Reading speed is not estimated. How the estimates work · How close they are · Back to the finder