Can the Apple M5 run Qwen3 30B-A3B?
Yes, with 32 GB or more. Qwen3 30B-A3B needs about 21 GB and the Apple M5 with 32 GB of unified memory leaves about 21 GB for models. Expect about 27 tok/s, about reading speed. The 16 and 24 GB versions don't have room.
ollama run qwen3:30bFirst time? Install Ollama, then paste that into a terminal.
Qwen3 30B-A3B needsAbout 21 GB
Apple M5 has16 or 24 or 32 GB unified memory
Bandwidth153 GB/s
Estimated speed~27 tok/s
By memory size
Each Apple M5 version
- 16 GB (about 11 GB usable)Too big
- 24 GB (about 16 GB usable)Too big
- 32 GB (about 21 GB usable)Usable ~27 tok/s
Want it faster?
Speed comes from memory bandwidth: the card reads all 2 GB of active weights for every token. Cards that run Qwen3 30B-A3B faster:
How we estimate
Speed is roughly memory bandwidth divided by the weights read per token, calibrated on our own rack. Sizes are Ollama's default 4-bit downloads plus about 1.2 GB for context. Real results are usually within about a third. Measured it yourself? Send us the number.
Keep going