LLaVA on Apple M3 Max · 36GB

✅ Runs (tight) — LLaVA 13B @ Q8_0
LLaVA 13B at Q8_0 needs ~20.1 GB (weights 13.2 GB + KV 6.3 GB + overhead 676 MB @ 8K ctx) of your 21.1 GB usable (of 36.0 GB unified memory) — fits, but little headroom — close other apps or trim context. Expect ~9–14 tok/s (usable).
context @ Q8_0: comfortable to 2K · runs to its full 4K
quantneedsspeed
✓ Q8_020.1 GB~9–14 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q5_K_M15.6 GB~12–19 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q4_K_M14.3 GB~13–20 tok/s (usable)
$runlocal install llava:13b
runlocal verdict card
download card share on x share on reddit drop it in your model-drop post
LLaVA: Runs (tight)
for your own README — links back here

Same model, other machines: Apple M1 · Apple M1 Pro · Apple M2 · Apple M3 Pro · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M4 Pro

Also runs on a Apple M3 Max: Qwen3 · DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen2.5 · Gemma 4 · Gemma 3

Best models for a Apple M3 Max · 36GB →

Architecturally similar

These share LLaVA's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M3 Max · 36GB too:

modelsharesverdict here
Code Llama 32kv/128hd40kv/128hd ✅ Runs (tight)
OLMo 2 7B 32kv/128hd ✅ Runs comfortably

Check any combo yourself: open the checker →