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Canonical Rankings

Best Macs for this model

Qwen3.6-27B ranked across the Mac lineup at the best practical quantization, using the best available runtime evidence. Model picker is focused on current-market choices.

29 ranked MacsUse the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.28 historical models hiddenStatic paths cover only canonical model pages; sort and quantization stay as query state.
RankMacScoreQuantTok/sRuntimeFitsHeadroomContextEvidencePriceWhy it ranks here
1Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB3618bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits228.4 GB262kEstimated$7,4998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 228.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB2978bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits164.4 GB262kEstimated$6,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 164.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB2338bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits100.4 GB262kEstimated$4,4998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 100.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 16-inch2338bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits100.4 GB262kEstimated$5,3998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 100.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch2338bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits100.4 GB262kEstimated$5,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 100.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB2018bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits68.4 GB229kEstimated$3,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 68.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB1698bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits36.4 GB118kEstimated$2,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 36.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch1698bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits36.4 GB118kEstimated$4,4998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 36.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB1538bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits20.4 GB62kEstimated$1,5998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch1538bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits20.4 GB62kEstimated$2,4998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB1538bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits20.4 GB62kEstimated$2,4998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch1538bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits20.4 GB62kEstimated$2,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch1538bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits20.4 GB62kEstimated$3,4998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch1538bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits20.4 GB62kEstimated$3,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB1418bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits8.4 GB20kEstimated$1,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch1418bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits8.4 GB20kEstimated$2,9998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch1418bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits8.4 GB20kEstimated$3,4998bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
18Mac Mini M4 32GB135Q6_K 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits8.9 GB25kEstimated$799Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
19MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch135Q6_K 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits8.9 GB25kEstimated$1,499Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
20MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch135Q6_K 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits8.9 GB25kEstimated$1,699Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
21Mac Mini M4 24GB130Q5_K_M 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits3.6 GB8kEstimated$599Q5_K_M is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
22MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch130Q5_K_M 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits3.6 GB8kEstimated$1,299Q5_K_M is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
23Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB130Q5_K_M 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits3.6 GB8kEstimated$1,399Q5_K_M is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
24MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch130Q5_K_M 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits3.6 GB8kEstimated$1,499Q5_K_M is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
25MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch130Q5_K_M 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits3.6 GB8kEstimated$1,999Q5_K_M is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
26MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch130Q5_K_M 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits3.6 GB8kEstimated$2,499Q5_K_M is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
27Mac Mini M4 16GB943bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits4.1 GB15kEstimated$4993bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
28MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch943bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits4.1 GB15kEstimated$1,0993bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
29MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch943bit 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · EstimatedOllamaFits4.1 GB15kEstimated$1,2993bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization.

Silicon Score › Models › Qwen3.6-27B

Qwen3.6-27B Apple Silicon benchmark and best Macs

Start with the ranked Mac table above, then audit tokens per second, RAM fit, quantization, runtimes, and source links before trusting the model on your Mac.

Quantizations observed: Q4_K - Medium

1Benchmark rows
1Chip tiers covered
16.6Fastest avg tok/s (M4 Max (128 GB))
29 GBMinimum RAM observed

Quick take

Fastest published result is 16.6 tok/s on M4 Max (128 GB) at Q4_K - Medium. Smallest published fit is 29.0 GB on M4 Max (128 GB). Published runtimes include Ollama. Start with Rankings for the decision, then use the raw rows below to audit the evidence.

Based on 1 external benchmark; no lab runs yet.

Published runtimes: Ollama.

Need the best Mac for this model? Use BuyNeed a setup-first answer? Use RunChecking whether it fits? Use FitBrowse Macs by exact hardwareNeed the full audit trail? Use BenchComparing against rented GPUs? Use AI Datacenter Index

Best Mac shortlist

These are ranked by the fastest published Qwen3.6-27B result available for each Mac's chip family. Use them as the search answer, then open the machine page before buying.

Model search answers

How fast is Qwen3.6-27B on Mac?

Qwen3.6-27B currently has a fastest published Mac result of 16.6 tok/s on M4 Max (128 GB) at Q4_K - Medium. Check the raw rows on this page before comparing that number to a different runtime, quantization, or context length.

What is the best Mac for Qwen3.6-27B?

MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch is the fastest published Mac-family answer for Qwen3.6-27B on this page right now, at 16.6 tok/s from its chip family. Treat that as a published benchmark starting point, not a universal buying recommendation.

Does Qwen3.6-27B fit on Apple Silicon?

Qwen3.6-27B has a smallest published fit of 29.0 GB on M4 Max (128 GB). More memory may still be required for longer context, different quantization, or parallel workloads.

Catalog record

27BTotal params
DenseActive params
262,144Context window
2026-04-22Release 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

Agentic Coding: the model now handles frontend workflows and repository-level reasoning with greater fluency and precision.

Official source  ·  Raw model card

agentscodingreasoningvisual-understanding

Runtime support mentioned

vLLMSGLangTransformersKTransformers

Official specs

  • Type: Causal Language Model with Vision Encoder.
  • Scale: 27B.
  • Context: 262,144 natively and extensible up to 1,010,000 tokens.
  • Total parameters: 27B.
  • Max input: 262,144 natively and extensible up to 1,010,000 tokens.

Official takeaways

  • Agentic Coding: the model now handles frontend workflows and repository-level reasoning with greater fluency and precision.
  • Thinking Preservation: we've introduced a new option to retain reasoning context from historical messages, streamlining iterative development and reducing overhead.

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

Field reality on Apple Silicon

Qwen3.6-27B: 28 Apple Silicon field reports; best reported generation ~85.5 tok/s; best reported prompt processing ~580.7 tok/s; reported RAM use ~15.8-41GB; seen on M4 MAX 64GB, MacBook Pro M5 MAX 128GB, MacBook Pro M4 MAX 128GB; via oMLX, MTPLX, MLX.

1Benchmark rows
28Field reports
9Practitioner signals
Sparse BenchmarksEvidence status

What practitioners keep saying

  • The oMLX context table reports Qwen3.6-27B 4bit on an M1 Max 24-core 32GB Mac at 1024 tokens context with 67.4 tok/s prompt processing, 15.5 tok/s generation, 15.201s TTFT, and peak memory at 15.8GB.
  • The page also includes separate batching results, but single-stream latency is the relevant caution for local coding-agent recommendations.
  • This row broadens lower-memory Max-tier fit evidence, but any ranking change still needs first-party reproduction with clean memory-pressure and prompt-shape telemetry.

Apple Silicon field sources

  • Youssofal Hugging Face model cards

    2026-05-05 · MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB · MTPLX

    MTPLX reports a roughly 2.24x Qwen3.6-27B speed lane on M5 Max 128GB using native MTP heads, but the claim is fanmax, prompt-shape, and runtime specific.

  • oMLX community benchmarks

    2026-05-05 · M4 Max 40-core GPU, 64GB unified memory · oMLX

    A same-day oMLX sweep shows Qwen3.6-27B-oQ4 on M4 Max 64GB with strong short-context speed but a steep drop by 16k context, making it a useful reproduction target for mid-memory Max-tier Macs.

  • oMLX community benchmarks

    2026-05-05 · M4 Max 40-core GPU, 128GB unified memory · oMLX

    A same-day oMLX context sweep shows exact Qwen3.6-27B-oQ4e running from 1k through 64k context on an M4 Max 40-core 128GB setup, giving a cleaner high-memory Max-tier dense-model signal than derivative-only rows.

  • oMLX community benchmarks

    2026-05-05 · M1 Max 24-core GPU, 32GB unified memory · oMLX

    A same-day oMLX row shows Qwen3.6-27B fitting on an M1 Max 32GB setup at 4-bit, but the low prompt-processing rate and long TTFT make it a cautious dense-model path for older 32GB Macs.

  • oMLX community benchmarks

    2026-05-04 · MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB · oMLX

    A same-day oMLX context sweep shows a Qwen3.6-27B derivative running across 1k to 32k context on an M4 Max 128GB MacBook Pro, adding a high-memory Max-tier dense-model signal while preserving first-party reproduction gates.

4 more Apple Silicon field sources tracked in the research queue.

Runtime mentions in the field

LM StudioMLXoMLX

Hardware mentioned in reports

24GB32GB48GB64GB128GBM1 MaxM4M4 Pro

What would improve confidence

  • Expand Cross Chip Benchmark Coverage
  • Reproduce Field Performance Signal
  • Upgrade To First Party Measurement

Current published coverage

Published chip coverage includes M4 Max (128 GB). Fastest published row is 16.6 tok/s on M4 Max (128 GB) at Q4_K - Medium. Lowest published RAM requirement is 29.0 GB on M4 Max (128 GB).

M4 Max (128 GB)

Related Qwen3.6-27B models with published pages: Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Raw benchmark rows for Qwen3.6-27B

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

ChipQuantRAM req.ContextAvg tok/sPrompt tok/sRuntimeSource
M4 Max (128 GB)Q4_K - Medium29.0 GB—16.6 tok/s114.5 tok/sOllamaref

Chips with published results for Qwen3.6-27B

M4 Max (128 GB)

Data

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

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