Canonical Rankings

Best Macs for this model

Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B 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: Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B. 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	527	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	226.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$7,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 226.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2	Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB	463	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	162.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$6,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 162.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	399	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	98.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 98.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4	MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 16-inch	399	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	98.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$5,399	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 98.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch	399	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	98.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$5,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 98.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB	367	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	66.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 66.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7	Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB	335	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	34.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 34.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8	MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch	335	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	34.7 GB	262k	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 34.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9	Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB	319	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	18.7 GB	259k	Estimated	$1,599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch	319	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	18.7 GB	259k	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11	Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB	319	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	18.7 GB	259k	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch	319	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	18.7 GB	259k	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch	319	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	18.7 GB	259k	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch	319	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	18.7 GB	259k	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 18.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15	Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB	307	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	6.7 GB	36k	Estimated	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 6.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch	307	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	6.7 GB	36k	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 6.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch	307	8bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	6.7 GB	36k	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 6.7 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
18	Mac Mini M4 32GB	302	Q6_K	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	7.8 GB	74k	Estimated	$799	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 7.8 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
19	MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch	302	Q6_K	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	7.8 GB	74k	Estimated	$1,499	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 7.8 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
20	MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch	302	Q6_K	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	7.8 GB	74k	Estimated	$1,699	Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 7.8 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
21	Mac Mini M4 24GB	293	5bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	5.4 GB	47k	Estimated	$599	5bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
22	MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch	293	5bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	5.4 GB	47k	Estimated	$1,299	5bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
23	Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB	293	5bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	5.4 GB	47k	Estimated	$1,399	5bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
24	MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch	293	5bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	5.4 GB	47k	Estimated	$1,499	5bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
25	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch	293	5bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	5.4 GB	47k	Estimated	$1,999	5bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
26	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch	293	5bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	5.4 GB	47k	Estimated	$2,499	5bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
27	Mac Mini M4 16GB	263	3bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	4.5 GB	53k	Estimated	$499	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
28	MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch	263	3bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	4.5 GB	53k	Estimated	$1,099	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
29	MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch	263	3bit	58.5 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 58.5 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	Fits	4.5 GB	53k	Estimated	$1,299	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 58.5 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.5 GB headroom remains at this quantization.

Qwen3-Coder-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: IQ4_XS

1Benchmark rows

1Chip tiers covered

58.5Fastest avg tok/s (M1 Max (64 GB))

16.1 GBMinimum RAM observed

Quick take

Fastest published result is 58.5 tok/s on M1 Max (64 GB) at IQ4_XS. Smallest published fit is 16.1 GB on M1 Max (64 GB). Longest published context on this page is 4k. Published runtimes include llama.cpp. 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: llama.cpp.

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Catalog record

30.5BTotal params

3.3BActive params

262,144Context window

2025-07-31Release 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

Significant Performance among open models on Agentic Coding, Agentic Browser-Use, and other foundational coding tasks. Long-context Capabilities with native support for 256K tokens, extendable up to 1M tokens using Yarn, optimized for repository-scale understanding.

Official source · Raw model card

agentscoding

Runtime support mentioned

MLXllama.cppOllamaTransformersKTransformersCline

Official specs

Type: Causal Language Models.
Scale: 30.5B in total and 3.3B activated.
Context: 262,144 natively.
Total parameters: 30.5B in total and 3.3B activated.
Max input: 262,144 natively.

Official takeaways

Sampling Parameters: - We suggest using temperature=0.7, top_p=0.8, top_k=20, repetition_penalty=1.05`.
Adequate Output Length: We recommend using an output length of 65,536 tokens for most queries, which is adequate for instruct models.
Significant Performance among open models on Agentic Coding, Agentic Browser-Use, and other foundational coding tasks.
For local use, applications such as Ollama, LMStudio, MLX-LM, llama.cpp, and KTransformers have also supported Qwen3.

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

Field reality on Apple Silicon

Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B: 2 Apple Silicon field reports; best reported generation ~58.5 tok/s; best reported prompt processing ~132.1 tok/s; seen on M1 MAX 64GB, M1 MAX 32GB; via llama.cpp, LM Studio.

1Benchmark rows

2Field reports

4Practitioner signals

Sparse BenchmarksEvidence status

What practitioners keep saying

The guidance positions Qwen3 Coder 30B as the default serious local coding choice.
The recommendation is framed around practical local hardware constraints, including Mac-class setups.
The report compares multiple current coding-oriented MoE models on Apple Silicon instead of discussing one in isolation.

Apple Silicon field sources

Docs.cline.bot
2026-03-11 · Mac / local coding workstation · LM Studio or Ollama
A mainstream coding-agent tool now recommends Qwen3 Coder 30B as its primary local coding model.
r/LocalLLaMA
2026-02-24 · M1 Max 64GB
Direct Apple Silicon comparisons are already treating Qwen3 Coder 30B as one of the real coding contenders in the 30B-class local tier.
r/LocalLLaMA
2026-02-18 · M1 Max 32GB · LM Studio
A LocalLLaMA commenter reports Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B Q4_K_M reaching about 49 t/s on an M1 Max 32GB setup at 120K context when KV cache and Flash Attention are tuned.
r/LocalLLaMA
2025-08-29 · Local coding workstation
Practitioner reaction positions Qwen3 Coder 30B as one of the standout local coding models, not just another catalog entry.

Runtime mentions in the field

LM StudioOllama

Hardware mentioned in reports

32GB64GBM1 MaxMac

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 M1 Max (64 GB). Fastest published row is 58.5 tok/s on M1 Max (64 GB) at IQ4_XS. Lowest published RAM requirement is 16.1 GB on M1 Max (64 GB). Catalog context window is 4k.

M1 Max (64 GB)

Related Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B models with published pages: Qwen3-Coder-Next

Raw benchmark rows for Qwen3-Coder-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
M1 Max (64 GB)	IQ4_XS	16.1 GB	4k	58.5 tok/s	132.1 tok/s	llama.cpp	ref

Chips with published results for Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B

M1 Max (64 GB)

Data

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

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