Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-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 (Qwen), 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 46.0 GiB–47.3 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 (79.9 GiB–81.9 GiB).
With Q4_K_M, the longest context that still counts as a fit is about 21,559 tokens of a 262,144-token native window, one sequence, fp16 KV cache.
| GGUF quant | File weights | KV cache | Estimated total | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 | 79.0 GiB | 0.8 GiB | 79.9 GiB–81.9 GiB | Does not fit |
| Q6_K | 61.0 GiB | 0.8 GiB | 61.9 GiB–63.6 GiB | Does not fit |
| Q5_K_M | 52.8 GiB | 0.8 GiB | 53.7 GiB–55.2 GiB | Tight |
| Q4_K_M (recommended) | 45.1 GiB | 0.8 GiB | 46.0 GiB–47.3 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 46.0 GiB-47.3 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.
- ModelQwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
- HardwareApple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio)
- QuantizationGGUF Q4_K_M (Qwen)
- Context length (cached tokens)8,192
- Engine
llama.cpp - Concurrent sequences1
- KV cache typefp16
Technical identifiers and share data
- Model
qwen3-next-80b-a3b-instruct - Hardware
apple-m2-max-64gb-unified - Quantization
gguf-q4_k_m - Share fragment for this identity
v2.eyJzY2hlbWFWZXJzaW9uIjoyLCJjYWxjdWxhdG9yVmVyc2lvbiI6IjAuMy4wIiwiZGF0YXNldFZlcnNpb24iOiIyMDI2LTEwLTAyLjEiLCJjb25maWciOnsibW9kZWxJZCI6InF3ZW4zLW5leHQtODBiLWEzYi1pbnN0cnVjdCIsImhhcmR3YXJlSWQiOiJhcHBsZS1tMi1tYXgtNjRnYi11bmlmaWVkIiwiZGV2aWNlQ291bnQiOjEsInF1YW50aXphdGlvbklkIjoiZ2d1Zi1xNF9rX20iLCJjb250ZXh0VG9rZW5zIjo4MTkyLCJjb25jdXJyZW50U2VxdWVuY2VzIjoxLCJlbmdpbmUiOiJsbGFtYS5jcHAiLCJrdlR5cGUiOiJmcDE2In19
Memory breakdown
- Weight artifact
- 45.09 GiB (48,410,988,384 bytes)
- Raw KV cache
- 0.75 GiB (805,306,368 bytes)
- Engine extras / workspace
- 0.13 GiB–1.45 GiB
- Total estimated demand
- 45.96 GiB–47.29 GiB
- Net calculator budget
- 54.00 GiB
- OS / display reserve
- 10.00 GiB
- Remaining vs net budget
- 6.71 GiB–8.04 GiB
47.29 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 | 152.85 GiB–154.75 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q8_0 (Qwen) | llama.cpp | 79.86 GiB–81.87 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q6_K (Qwen) | llama.cpp | 61.90 GiB–63.55 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q5_K_M (Qwen) | llama.cpp | 53.69 GiB–55.17 GiB | Tight fit |
| GGUF Q4_K_M (Qwen) This page | llama.cpp | 45.96 GiB–47.29 GiB | Fits |
Assumptions that affect this result
- Requested context is within the recorded native window of 262144 tokens.
- Full-resident weight estimates use total parameters, including inactive MoE experts.
- This MoE lists 81324862720 total parameters and 3000000000 active parameters. Active-parameter compute is not used as the weight-residency figure.
- 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.
- Counted files: Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf.
- Multi-token prediction / draft weights exist and are not included unless enabled.
- Context budget is the number of cached tokens per sequence (prompt plus reserved generation).
Related pages
Sources
- Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct model card
- config.json — revision 9c7f2fbe84465e40164a94cc16cd30b6999b0cc7
- safetensors index — metadata.total_size=162649725440
- Artifact repo Qwen/Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-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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