Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct on Apple M2 Max: Fits (Sep 2026)
Conditional memory judgement for one configuration. Change context, quant, or engine and the conclusion can change. Configuration used on this page: GGUF Q4_K_M, 8,192 cached tokens, 1 sequence, engine llama.cpp. Status: Likely fits. Software: Not verified..
Verdict on Apple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio)
Yes, run Q4_K_M. The calculator puts it at 43.6 GiB–45.0 GiB at 8,192 tokens, inside 54.0 GiB of usable unified memory (after the OS reserve). Q8_0 is the next step up and does not clear the bar (74.8 GiB–76.8 GiB).
With Q4_K_M, the longest context that still counts as a fit is about 19,269 tokens of a 32,768-token native window, one sequence, fp16 KV cache.
| GGUF quant | File weights | KV cache | Estimated total | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 | 72.2 GiB | 2.5 GiB | 74.8 GiB–76.8 GiB | Does not fit |
| Q6_K | 55.7 GiB | 2.5 GiB | 58.4 GiB–60.0 GiB | Does not fit |
| Q5_K_M | 48.1 GiB | 2.5 GiB | 50.8 GiB–52.3 GiB | Tight |
| Q4_K_M (recommended) | 41.0 GiB | 2.5 GiB | 43.6 GiB–45.0 GiB | Fits |
Engine llama.cpp, one sequence, fp16 KV. File weights are the published GGUF sizes in the catalog. Totals come from the same calculator that powers the tool below; they are estimates, not a measurement of this setup.
Fixed page configuration
GGUF Q4_K_M needs 43.6 GiB-45.0 GiB at 8,192 tokens against 54.00 GiB net on Apple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio). Q8_0, Q6_K, Q5_K_M are tight or over budget.
- ModelQwen2.5-72B-Instruct
- HardwareApple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio)
- QuantizationGGUF Q4_K_M
- Context length (cached tokens)8,192
- Engine
llama.cpp - Concurrent sequences1
- KV cache typefp16
Technical identifiers and share data
- Model
qwen2.5-72b-instruct - Hardware
apple-m2-max-64gb-unified - Quantization
gguf-q4_k_m - Share fragment for this identity
v2.eyJzY2hlbWFWZXJzaW9uIjoyLCJjYWxjdWxhdG9yVmVyc2lvbiI6IjAuMy4wIiwiZGF0YXNldFZlcnNpb24iOiIyMDI2LTEwLTAyLjEiLCJjb25maWciOnsibW9kZWxJZCI6InF3ZW4yLjUtNzJiLWluc3RydWN0IiwiaGFyZHdhcmVJZCI6ImFwcGxlLW0yLW1heC02NGdiLXVuaWZpZWQiLCJkZXZpY2VDb3VudCI6MSwicXVhbnRpemF0aW9uSWQiOiJnZ3VmLXE0X2tfbSIsImNvbnRleHRUb2tlbnMiOjgxOTIsImNvbmN1cnJlbnRTZXF1ZW5jZXMiOjEsImVuZ2luZSI6ImxsYW1hLmNwcCIsImt2VHlwZSI6ImZwMTYifX0
Memory breakdown
- Weight artifact
- 40.99 GiB (44,010,465,472 bytes)
- Raw KV cache
- 2.50 GiB (2,684,354,560 bytes)
- Engine extras / workspace
- 0.13 GiB–1.49 GiB
- Total estimated demand
- 43.61 GiB–44.98 GiB
- Net calculator budget
- 54.00 GiB
- OS / display reserve
- 10.00 GiB
- Remaining vs net budget
- 9.02 GiB–10.39 GiB
44.98 GiB high estimate vs 54.00 GiB net
Enough memory does not mean this engine, quant, and OS will run. Support does not mean it will be fast.
Other published files on this device
Same model, device and context (8,192 tokens, 1 sequence, FP16 KV). Each row is one published weight-file set with its usual engine, sorted by memory.
| Quantization | Engine | Estimated memory | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| BF16 safetensors | vllm | 138.55 GiB–140.50 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q8_0 (Qwen) | llama.cpp | 74.83 GiB–76.82 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q6_K (Qwen) | llama.cpp | 58.37 GiB–60.04 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q5_K_M (Qwen) | llama.cpp | 50.75 GiB–52.26 GiB | Tight fit |
| GGUF Q4_K_M This page | llama.cpp | 43.61 GiB–44.98 GiB | Fits |
Assumptions that affect this result
- Requested context is within the recorded native window of 32768 tokens.
- Full-resident weight estimates use total parameters, including inactive MoE experts.
- Weight bytes come from the selected weight files only, not from every file in the repository.
- Download file size is not peak GPU memory. Runtime layout, allocator padding, and KV are extra.
- Weight bytes come from 12 published safetensors shards totaling 44010465472 bytes.
- Context budget is the number of cached tokens per sequence (prompt plus reserved generation).
- Concurrent sequences share one model replica; weights are not multiplied by sequence count.
- KV dtype is independent of weight quantization unless you change it.
Related pages
Sources
- Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct model card
- config.json — revision 495f39366efef23836d0cfae4fbe635880d2be31
- safetensors index — metadata.total_size=145412407296
- Artifact repo Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct-GGUF
- MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2023) tech specs — Apple M2 Max configurable to 64GB unified memory (32GB and 96GB are different SKUs).
Calculator
This combo page keeps the route model and device. Customize to change them on the main calculator; the share then keeps that identity.
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