Is the Mac Studio with M2 Max good for local LLMs?

With 96 GB it runs 43 of 73 open models well, up to gpt-oss-120b, and writes about 95–168 tokens a second with gpt-oss-20b. The M2 Max reads memory at 400 GB/s, which sets how fast it writes.

How much memory should a Mac Studio with M2 Max have for AI?

With 32 GB it runs 38 open models well; with 96 GB, 43, up to gpt-oss-120b. Memory decides which models fit, and it can’t be upgraded later.

Mac Studio M2 Max for local AI: which LLMs it runs, by memory

By memory size

Memory	Run well	Biggest that runs well	gpt-oss-20b
32 GB400 GB/s	38	Qwen3.6 35B A3B	95–168 tok/s
64 GB400 GB/s	39	Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B A9B	95–168 tok/s
96 GB400 GB/s	43	gpt-oss-120b	95–168 tok/s

Models: Mac Studio (2023). Not every memory size is offered with every model; Apple’s Tech Specs list what each one comes with.

Questions

Is the Mac Studio with M2 Max good for local LLMs?: With 96 GB it runs 43 of 73 open models well, up to gpt-oss-120b, and writes about 95–168 tokens a second with gpt-oss-20b. The M2 Max reads memory at 400 GB/s, which sets how fast it writes.
How much memory should a Mac Studio with M2 Max have for AI?: With 32 GB it runs 38 open models well; with 96 GB, 43, up to gpt-oss-120b. Memory decides which models fit, and it can’t be upgraded later.

Other Macs

The Mac Studio with other chips:

Other Macs with the M2 Max:

MacBook Pro M2 Max

Head to head:

The M2 Max for local AI · The best Mac for local LLMs · Every Mac

How it’s worked out

Memory: the model’s parameters at 8, 6, 4, 3 or 2 bits per weight plus MLX’s group scales (half a bit per weight), or its native format, with room for the context on top. By default macOS lets the GPU use about 75% of unified memory. Speed: memory bandwidth divided by the bytes read per token is the ceiling for one conversation; in llama.cpp’s public Apple Silicon benchmarks real runs reach about 45% to 80% of it, which is the range shown. These are estimates, not measurements: measure your own Mac on MLX Bench. Model figures from each official model card, chip figures from Apple’s Tech Specs. Checked 2026-10-19. Same data as mlx.app/compare.