MiniMax M3 (427B) on Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB)

Can the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB) run MiniMax M3 (427B)?

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q4_K_M it needs about 293 GB of 384 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 43.3 tok/s.

Best quant: Q4_K_M
Generation speed: 43.3 tok/s
Prompt processing: 935 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 1.1 s
Largest safe context: 732K

Best app to run it on the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX · use the MLX build

Runs the MLX build, typically up to 10% faster than GGUF for a model with 25B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open MiniMax M3 (427B) in LM Studio

llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.
Ollama Runs the Hugging Face GGUF with ollama run hf.co/…

Want an agent? MiniMax M3 (427B) supports tool use, so you can pair a llama.cpp or MLX LM server with one of these. Apps that run on this computer come first.

Coding agents

Personal assistants

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download MiniMax M3 (427B)

Recommended for the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB): Q4_K_M. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Ollama

Ollama offers this only as a cloud model (it runs on Ollama’s servers, not your machine). To run it locally, use the GGUF files below.

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

Download the Q4_K_M files (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/unsloth/MiniMax-M3-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/unsloth/MiniMax-M3-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from MiniMax, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3 (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from MiniMax. The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/MiniMax-AI/MiniMax-M3 (opens in a new tab)

git clone https://github.com/MiniMax-AI/MiniMax-M3

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 95/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q4_K_M, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs great: How well it runs on the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	40.5 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.	25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	15.0 / 15
Match score	95.5 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Apple M5 Ultra (512 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	203 GB	384 GB	66.1 tok/s	Runs great	66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (UD-Q2_K_XL) · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	242 GB	384 GB	54.1 tok/s	Runs great	79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 90/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	293 GB	384 GB	43.3 tok/s	Runs great	90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 95/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	336 GB	384 GB	36.6 tok/s	Runs welltight fit	91Excellent quality (A+) · 91 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 94/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	382 GB	384 GB	31.2 tok/s	Runs welltight fit	93Excellent quality (A+) · 93 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 94/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	485 GB	384 GB	—	Won't run	94Excellent quality (A+) · 94 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 12/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	886 GB	384 GB	—	Won't run	94Excellent quality (A+) · 94 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 12/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB) Q4_K_M · 31.0 tok/s · Runs great
66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB) Q2_K · 48.3 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
90Excellent quality (A+) · 90 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 94/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Instinct MI350X Q4_K_M · 158 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Instinct MI325X Q3_K_M · 159 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip Q3_K_M · 183 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)
66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Instinct MI300X Q2_K · 171 tok/s · Runs well (tight fit)

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.