Canonical Rankings

Best Macs for this model

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B ranked across the Mac lineup at the best practical quantization, using the best available runtime evidence. Model picker is focused on current-market choices.

Model

Quantization

Sort

Runtime

28 ranked MacsUse the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.13 historical models hiddenBaselinesStatic paths cover only canonical model pages; sort and quantization stay as query state.

Rank	Mac	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Fits	Evidence	Price	Why it ranks here
1	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	405	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$7,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 227.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2	Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB	341	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$6,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 163.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	277	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 99.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch	277	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$5,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 99.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB	245	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 67.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6	Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB	213	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 35.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7	MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch	213	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 35.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8	Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB	197	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 19.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch	197	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 19.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10	Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB	197	8bit	28.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 19.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch	197	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 19.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch	197	8bit	28.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 19.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch	197	8bit	28.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 19.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14	Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB	185	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 7.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch	185	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 7.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch	185	8bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 7.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17	Mac Mini M4 32GB	180	Q6_K	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$799	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
18	MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch	180	Q6_K	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,499	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
19	MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch	180	Q6_K	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,699	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
20	Mac Mini M4 24GB	148	Q5	22.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$599	Q5 is the current best practical quantization. 22.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
21	MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch	148	Q5	22.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,299	Q5 is the current best practical quantization. 22.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
22	Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB	148	Q5	22.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,399	Q5 is the current best practical quantization. 22.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
23	MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch	148	Q5	22.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,499	Q5 is the current best practical quantization. 22.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
24	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch	148	Q5	22.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,999	Q5 is the current best practical quantization. 22.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
25	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch	148	Q5	22.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	Q5 is the current best practical quantization. 22.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
26	Mac Mini M4 16GB	138	Q3_K_L	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$499	Q3_K_L is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 2.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
27	MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch	138	Q3_K_L	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,099	Q3_K_L is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 2.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
28	MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch	138	Q3_K_L	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,299	Q3_K_L is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 2.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B — ranking first, raw rows below

Start with the ranked Mac table above. Use the rest of this page to inspect raw Apple Silicon coverage and model metadata.

Quantizations observed: Q4_K - Medium

3Benchmark rows

3Chip tiers covered

35.0Fastest avg tok/s (M5 Max (64 GB))

—Minimum RAM observed

What this page answers best

Fastest published result is 35.0 tok/s on M5 Max (64 GB) at Q4_K - Medium. Published runtimes include MLX, Ollama. Start with Rankings for the decision, then use the raw rows below to audit the evidence.

Evidence state: 3 linked reference rows and no Silicon Score Lab rows yet.

Published runtimes here: MLX, Ollama.

Need the best Mac for this model? Use Buy Need a setup-first answer? Use Run Checking whether it fits? Use Fit Browse Macs by exact hardware Need the full audit trail? Use Bench Comparing against rented GPUs? Use AI Datacenter Index

Catalog record

30BTotal params

3BActive params

1,000,000Context window

2026-03-19Release date

What this model is, and what Apple Silicon users are actually seeing

Official model cards tell you what the model is for and which software stacks it targets. Field reality below shows how much Apple Silicon evidence we have so far.

Official brief

We're excited to introduce Nemotron-Cascade-2-30B-A3B, an open 30B MoE model with 3B activated parameters that delivers strong reasoning and agentic capabilities. It is post-trained from the Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B-Base.

Official source · Raw model card

agentscodingreasoning

Runtime support mentioned

vLLMOpenHands

Official specs

Architecture: Mixture of experts.
Total parameters: 30B.
Active parameters: 3B.
Context: 1000000 tokens.
License: NVIDIA Open Model License.

Official takeaways

Standard version: Use the following command to create an API endpoint with a maximum context length of 1M tokens.
Tool Call: Use the following command to enable tool support.
We're excited to introduce Nemotron-Cascade-2-30B-A3B, an open 30B MoE model with 3B activated parameters that delivers strong reasoning and agentic capabilities.
The following will create API endpoints at http://localhost:8000/v1:

Official model cards describe intent, capabilities, and supported stacks. They do not prove Apple Silicon speed by themselves.

Field reality on Apple Silicon

3Benchmark rows

0Field reports

0Practitioner signals

Sparse BenchmarksEvidence status

What would improve confidence

Upgrade To First Party Measurement

Current published coverage

Published chip coverage includes M5 Max (64 GB), M4 Max (48 GB), M4 Pro (24 GB). Fastest published row is 35.0 tok/s on M5 Max (64 GB) at Q4_K - Medium.

M5 Max (64 GB)M4 Max (48 GB)M4 Pro (24 GB)

Raw benchmark rows for Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B

Rows stay below the ranking because this page is answer-first. Use them to inspect exact chips, quantizations, runtimes, and sources.

Chip	Quant	RAM req.	Context	Avg tok/s	Prompt tok/s	Runtime	Source
M5 Max (64 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	35.0 tok/s	—	Ollama	ref
M4 Max (48 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	28.0 tok/s	—	MLX	ref
M4 Pro (24 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	22.0 tok/s	—	Ollama	ref

Chips with published results for Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B

M5 Max (64 GB)M4 Max (48 GB)M4 Pro (24 GB)

Data

benchmarks.json — full dataset · models.json — model summaries · benchmarks.csv — CSV export

See all models →