Canonical Rankings

Best Macs for this model

Qwen 3 4B ranked across the Mac lineup at the best practical quantization, using the best available runtime evidence. Historical baseline selected; model picker is focused on current-market choices.

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29 ranked MacsUse the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.27 other historical models hiddenBaselinesStatic paths cover only canonical model pages; sort and quantization stay as query state.

Historical baseline selected: Qwen 3 4B. Default model choices remain current-market; other historical models stay hidden.

Rank	Mac	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Fits	Headroom	Context	Evidence	Price	Why it ranks here
1	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	863	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	250.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$7,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 250.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2	Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB	799	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	186.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$6,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 186.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	735	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	122.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 122.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4	MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 16-inch	735	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	122.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$5,399	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 122.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch	735	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	122.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$5,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 122.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB	703	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	90.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 90.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7	Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB	697	8bit	143.2 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q4_G32 · 149.1 tok/s · MLX · Trusted reference	MLX	Fits	58.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 143.2 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 58.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8	MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch	697	8bit	143.2 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q4_G32 · 149.1 tok/s · MLX · Trusted reference	MLX	Fits	58.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 143.2 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 58.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9	Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB	655	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	42.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 42.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch	655	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	42.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 42.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11	Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB	655	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	42.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 42.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch	655	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	42.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 42.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch	655	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	42.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 42.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch	655	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	42.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 42.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15	Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB	643	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	30.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 30.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch	643	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	30.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 30.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch	643	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	30.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 30.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
18	Mac Mini M4 32GB	639	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	26.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$799	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 26.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
19	MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch	639	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	26.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 26.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
20	MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch	639	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	26.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,699	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 26.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
21	Mac Mini M4 16GB	623	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	10.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 10.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
22	MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch	623	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	10.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,099	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 10.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
23	MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch	623	8bit	136.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 136.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	10.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,299	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 136.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 10.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
24	Mac Mini M4 24GB	557	8bit	118.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 118.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	18.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 118.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
25	MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch	557	8bit	118.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 118.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	18.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,299	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 118.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
26	Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB	557	8bit	118.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 118.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	18.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,399	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 118.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
27	MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch	557	8bit	118.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 118.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	18.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 118.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
28	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch	557	8bit	118.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 118.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	18.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 118.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
29	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch	557	8bit	118.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 118.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	18.6 GB	33k	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 118.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.

Qwen 3 4B — 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_G32, Q4, Q5, Q5_G32, Q6, Q4_K - Medium, Q8

9Benchmark rows

4Chip tiers covered

149.1Fastest avg tok/s (M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB))

2.54 GBMinimum RAM observed

Quick take

Fastest published result is 149.1 tok/s on M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB) at Q4_G32. Smallest published fit is 2.5 GB on M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB). Longest published context on this page is 2k. Published runtimes include MLX, Ollama. Start with Rankings for the decision, then use the raw rows below to audit the evidence.

Based on 9 external benchmarks; no lab runs yet.

Published runtimes: 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

4.0BTotal params

DenseActive params

32,768Context window

2025-04-29Release date

This is a reference-only model record. It remains useful for historical benchmarks, migration checks, and audit context, but it is excluded from current frontier packs.

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

Qwen3-4B has the following features: Type: Causal Language Models Training Stage: Pretraining & Post-training Number of Parameters: 4.0B Number of Paramaters (Non-Embedding): 3.6B Number of Layers: 36 Number of Attention Heads (GQA): 32 for Q and 8 for KV Context Length: 32,768…

Official source · Raw model card

Runtime support mentioned

MLXllama.cppOllamavLLMSGLangTransformersKTransformers

Official specs

Type: Causal Language Models.
Scale: 4.0B.
Context: 32,768 natively and 131,072 tokens with YaRN.
Total parameters: 4.0B.
Max input: 32,768 natively and 131,072 tokens with YaRN.

Official takeaways

Sampling Parameters: - For thinking mode (enable_thinking=True), use Temperature=0.6, TopP=0.95, TopK=20, and MinP=0. DO NOT use greedy decoding, as it can lead to performance degradation and endless repetitions.
Adequate Output Length: We recommend using an output length of 32,768 tokens for most queries.
Standardize Output Format: We recommend using prompts to standardize model outputs when benchmarking.
Multiple-Choice Questions: Add the following JSON structure to the prompt to standardize responses: "Please show your choice in the answer field with only the choice letter, e.g., "answer": "C"`."

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

Field reality on Apple Silicon

No structured Apple Silicon field speed reports yet. Qwen 3 4B. It is not yet published in the current frontier packs. Benchmark evidence includes 9 Apple Silicon benchmark rows. 1 official model brief captured. 2 fetched artifacts. No curated practitioner signals yet. No structured Apple Silicon field speed reports yet.

9Benchmark rows

0Field reports

0Practitioner signals

Sparse BenchmarksEvidence status

Current published coverage

Published chip coverage includes M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB), M5 Max (64 GB), M4 Pro (24 GB), M2 (8 GB). Fastest published row is 149.1 tok/s on M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB) at Q4_G32. Lowest published RAM requirement is 2.5 GB on M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB). Catalog context window is 2k.

M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)M5 Max (64 GB)M4 Pro (24 GB)M2 (8 GB)

Related Qwen 3 models with published pages: Qwen 3 32B · Qwen 3 30B-A3B · Qwen 3 235B-A22B · Qwen 3 8B · Qwen 3 14B · Qwen 3 0.6B

Raw benchmark rows for Qwen 3 4B

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
M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)	Q4_G32	2.8 GB	2k	149.1 tok/s	2838.4 tok/s	MLX	ref
M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)	Q4	2.5 GB	2k	148.1 tok/s	2976.7 tok/s	MLX	ref
M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)	Q5	3.3 GB	2k	143.2 tok/s	2736.2 tok/s	MLX	ref
M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)	Q5_G32	3.5 GB	2k	143.0 tok/s	2754.5 tok/s	MLX	ref
M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)	Q6	4.0 GB	2k	136.6 tok/s	2735.7 tok/s	MLX	ref
M5 Max (64 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	135.0 tok/s	—	Ollama	ref
M4 Pro (24 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	118.0 tok/s	—	MLX	ref
M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)	Q8	5.1 GB	2k	111.5 tok/s	1780.6 tok/s	MLX	ref
M2 (8 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	52.0 tok/s	—	Ollama	ref

Best Macs for Qwen 3 4B

Ordered by fastest published tok/s on the chip family in each Mac. Click through for the full machine page.

MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 16-inch — 135.0 tok/s Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB — 118.0 tok/s Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB — 118.0 tok/s MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch — 118.0 tok/s MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch — 118.0 tok/s MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch — 118.0 tok/s

Chips with published results for Qwen 3 4B

M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB)M5 Max (64 GB)M4 Pro (24 GB)M2 (8 GB)

Data

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

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