GPU GUIDE · APPLE
Best AI models for the
Apple M5 Ultra (256GB)
The Apple M5 Ultra (256GB) has 256GB of unified memory. Below are the top 30 open-source AI models that fit, ranked by composite benchmark score. Each row shows the best quantization that fits your hardware.
VRAM
256GB
Brand
apple
Models that fit
30
Generation
M5
Top 30 models for the Apple M5 Ultra (256GB)
01
77.9Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B
95.0BBest fit: fp16 · 191.0GBCan I run it? →
02
69.0Qwen3.8 27B
27.0BBest fit: fp16 · 55.0GBCan I run it? →
03
60.0NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super
340BBest fit: Q5_K_M · 242.4GBCan I run it? →
04
54.0GLM-5
230BBest fit: Q8_0 · 245.4GBCan I run it? →
05
54.3MiMo V2.5 Pro
320BBest fit: Q5_K_M · 228.2GBCan I run it? →
06
52.5Qwen 3.6 Plus
235BBest fit: Q8_0 · 250.7GBCan I run it? →
07
49.1MiMo V2 Omni
120BBest fit: fp16 · 241.0GBCan I run it? →
08
48.3Qwen 3.6 27B
27.8BBest fit: f32 · 112.2GBCan I run it? →
09
45.0Qwen 3 Next 80B A3B
80.0BBest fit: Q8_0 · 86.0GBCan I run it? →
10
44.9Qwen3.5-27B
27.0BBest fit: fp16 · 55.0GBCan I run it? →
11
43.7Qwen 3.6 35B A3B
36.0BBest fit: f32 · 145.0GBCan I run it? →
12
41.4Qwen 3.5 122B A10B
125BBest fit: fp16 · 251.2GBCan I run it? →
13
40.6Muse Glimmer 30B
30.0BBest fit: fp16 · 61.0GBCan I run it? →
14
39.9Qwen 3.5 Omni Plus
235BBest fit: Q8_0 · 250.7GBCan I run it? →
15
37.7Qwen 3.5 35B A3B
36.0BBest fit: f32 · 145.0GBCan I run it? →
16
37.0Gemma 4 31B
31.3BBest fit: f32 · 126.2GBCan I run it? →
17
36.7Devstral 2
24.0BBest fit: f32 · 97.0GBCan I run it? →
18
31.9Gemma 4 26B A4B
26.0BBest fit: fp16 · 53.0GBCan I run it? →
19
31.7Devstral Small 2
7.0BBest fit: f32 · 29.0GBCan I run it? →
20
31.1NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
124BBest fit: fp16 · 248.2GBCan I run it? →
21
28.3Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
406BBest fit: Q4_K_M · 247.1GBCan I run it? →
22
26.7Ministral 3 14B
14.0BBest fit: f32 · 57.0GBCan I run it? →
23
26.0GPT-OSS 120B
120BBest fit: fp16 · 241.0GBCan I run it? →
24
25.9gemma 4 12B it
12.0BBest fit: f32 · 49.0GBCan I run it? →
25
25.0Ministral 3 8B
8.0BBest fit: f32 · 33.0GBCan I run it? →
26
25.0Gemma 4 E2B
5.1BBest fit: f32 · 21.4GBCan I run it? →
27
24.6Qwen 3.5 9B
9.7BBest fit: f32 · 39.8GBCan I run it? →
28
24.0Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
236BBest fit: Q8_0 · 251.4GBCan I run it? →
29
23.2Qwen 3.5 4B
4.7BBest fit: f32 · 19.8GBCan I run it? →
30
23.2Granite 4.2 8B
8.0BBest fit: fp16 · 17.0GBCan I run it? →
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FAQ — running AI on the Apple M5 Ultra (256GB)
How many AI models can the Apple M5 Ultra (256GB) run?
With 256GB of unified memory, the Apple M5 Ultra (256GB) can run 30+ open-source models from our database, including Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B, Qwen3.8 27B, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super.
What's the largest LLM I can run on a Apple M5 Ultra (256GB)?
The biggest model that fits is approximately 406B. Larger models would need to be quantized further or won't fit at all.
Is 256GB of unified memory enough for local AI?
Yes — 256GB comfortably runs most popular open-source models including 30B-class LLMs at Q4_K_M.