← Everything the Apple M5 runsApple M5 · Qwen3 32B

Can the Apple M5 run Qwen3 32B?

Yes, with 32 GB or more. Qwen3 32B needs about 22 GB and the Apple M5 with 32 GB of unified memory leaves about 21 GB for models. Expect about 4 tok/s, slow, but it works. The 16 and 24 GB versions don't have room.

ollama run qwen3:32b

First time? Install Ollama, then paste that into a terminal.

Qwen3 32B needsAbout 22 GB
Apple M5 has16 or 24 or 32 GB unified memory
Bandwidth153 GB/s
Estimated speed~4 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)Slow ~4 tok/s
Want it faster?

Speed comes from memory bandwidth: the card reads all 20 GB of active weights for every token. On the Apple M5, Qwen3 30B-A3B runs at about 27 tok/s if you can trade some quality for speed. Cards that run Qwen3 32B 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

More about the Apple M5 and Qwen3 32B