M4
What Can You Run on 8GB Apple Silicon? Local AI on a Budget Mac
Llama 3.2 3B runs at 30 tok/s. Phi-4 Mini fits with room to spare. 7B models technically load but swap to disk. Honest benchmarks and real limits for 8GB M1/M2/M3/M4 Macs.
Ollama on Mac: Setup and Optimization Guide (2026)
Install Ollama on Apple Silicon, verify Metal GPU is active, and tune it for your Mac's RAM. Config for M1 through M4 Ultra with model picks per memory tier.
Ollama on Mac Not Working? Fix Metal, Memory Pressure, and Slow Performance
ollama ps says CPU? Generation crawling at 2 tok/s? macOS killed your model mid-sentence? Every Mac-specific Ollama problem diagnosed and fixed with exact commands.
M4 Max and M3 Ultra for Local LLMs: Apple Silicon in 2026
No M4 Ultra exists. Apple's Mac Studio pairs the M4 Max (128GB, 546 GB/s) with an M3 Ultra (192GB, 800 GB/s). Real benchmarks, pricing, and who should buy which for local AI.
Best Local LLMs for Mac in 2026 — M1 through M5 Tested
The best models to run on every Mac tier. Specific picks for 8GB M1 through 192GB M3 Ultra, with real tok/s numbers. Qwen 3.6, Llama 4 Scout, DeepSeek V4, MLX vs Ollama, updated May 2026.
Running LLMs on Mac M-Series: Setup, Tools, Troubleshooting
Foundational how-to for Apple Silicon local AI: unified memory, MLX vs Ollama vs llama.cpp Metal, verification, and the headless Mac Mini AI server.