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.

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28 ranked MacsUse the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.Static 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	361	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$7,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 228.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2	Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB	297	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$6,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 164.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	233	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 100.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch	233	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$5,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 100.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB	201	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 68.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6	Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB	169	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 36.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7	MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch	169	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 36.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8	Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB	153	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch	153	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10	Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB	153	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch	153	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch	153	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch	153	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14	Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB	141	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch	141	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch	141	8bit	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17	Mac Mini M4 32GB	135	Q6_K	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$799	Q6_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.
18	MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch	135	Q6_K	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,499	Q6_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.
19	MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch	135	Q6_K	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,699	Q6_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.
20	Mac Mini M4 24GB	130	Q5_K_M	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$599	Q5_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.
21	MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch	130	Q5_K_M	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,299	Q5_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.
22	Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB	130	Q5_K_M	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,399	Q5_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.
23	MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch	130	Q5_K_M	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,499	Q5_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.
24	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch	130	Q5_K_M	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,999	Q5_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.
25	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch	130	Q5_K_M	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	Q5_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.
26	Mac Mini M4 16GB	95	Q2_K	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$499	Q2_K is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
27	MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch	95	Q2_K	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,099	Q2_K is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
28	MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch	95	Q2_K	16.6 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,299	Q2_K is the current best practical quantization. 16.6 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.

Qwen3.6-27B — 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

1Benchmark rows

1Chip tiers covered

16.6Fastest avg tok/s (M4 Max (128 GB))

29 GBMinimum RAM observed

What this page answers best

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.

Evidence state: 1 linked reference row and no Silicon Score Lab rows yet.

Published runtimes here: 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

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 takeaways

Type: Causal Language Model with Vision Encoder.
Scale: 27B.
Context: 262,144 natively and extensible up to 1,010,000 tokens..
Agentic Coding: the model now handles frontend workflows and repository-level reasoning with greater fluency and precision.

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: 2 Apple Silicon field reports; best reported generation ~17.3 tok/s; best reported prompt processing ~382.7 tok/s; seen on MacBook Pro M5 MAX 128GB; via oMLX.

1Benchmark rows

2Field reports

1Practitioner signals

Sparse BenchmarksEvidence status

What practitioners keep saying

The oMLX page reports Qwen3.6-27B 4bit on an M5 Max 128GB MacBook Pro at 4096 tokens context with 382.7 tok/s prompt processing and 17.3 tok/s generation.
The same report spans 1024 through 65536 tokens context, with generation ranging from 16.3 tok/s to 19.1 tok/s before falling to 15.1 tok/s at the deepest listed context.

Runtime mentions in the field

oMLX

Hardware mentioned in reports

128GBMacBookMacBook Pro

What would improve confidence

Capture Practitioner Runtime Notes
Expand Cross Chip Benchmark Coverage
Queue Lab Verification If Hardware Available
Reproduce Field Performance Signal

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.

Chip	Quant	RAM req.	Context	Avg tok/s	Prompt tok/s	Runtime	Source
M4 Max (128 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	29.0 GB	—	16.6 tok/s	114.5 tok/s	Ollama	ref

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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