Hardware · Apple Silicon

What AI models can the Apple M5 (32 GB) run?

Unified memory: 32.0 GB
Usable for models: 21.4 GB
Memory bandwidth: 153 GB/s
FP16 compute: 4.8 TFLOPS
Released: 2025

macOS lets the GPU use roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of unified memory by default, so we plan around that figure rather than the full 32.0 GB.

Specifications

Maker	Apple Silicon
Type	Apple silicon (system on a chip)
Chip	Apple M5
Unified memory	32.0 GB
Usable for AI models	21.4 GB
Memory bandwidth	153 GB/s
FP16 compute	4.8 TFLOPS
Interface	UNIFIED
Released	2025

3 products with the Apple M5 (32 GB)

MacBook Air (13-inch, M5)Apple · Laptop · 16, 24 or 32 GB · from $1,099Maker’s page (opens in a new tab)
MacBook Air (15-inch, M5)Apple · Laptop · 16, 24 or 32 GB · from $1,299Maker’s page (opens in a new tab)
MacBook Pro (14-inch, M5)Apple · Laptop · 16, 24 or 32 GB · from $1,599Maker’s page (opens in a new tab)

Best LLMs for the Apple M5 (32 GB)

Grade · points	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Fit
89 ptsExcellent (S) · 89 of 100 points: Model quality 39.5/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 10.9/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle	`Q4_K_M`	18.5 GB	21.3 tok/s	Tight fit
88 ptsExcellent (S) · 88 of 100 points: Model quality 35.3/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba	`Q3_K_M`	20.1 GB	34.8 tok/s	Tight fit
88 ptsExcellent (S) · 88 of 100 points: Model quality 35.2/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen3.5 35B-A3BAlibaba	`Q3_K_M`	20.1 GB	34.8 tok/s	Tight fit
87 ptsExcellent (S) · 87 of 100 points: Model quality 33.3/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	GLM-4.7 Flash (30B-A3B)Zhipu AI	`Q3_K_M`	18.1 GB	34.8 tok/s	Runs well
87 ptsExcellent (S) · 87 of 100 points: Model quality 34.0/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Ornith 1.5 35B-A3BDeepReinforce	`Q3_K_M`	20.1 GB	34.8 tok/s	Tight fit
86 ptsExcellent (S) · 86 of 100 points: Model quality 33.6/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Apodex 1.1 Mini (35B-A3B)Apodex	`Q3_K_M`	20.1 GB	34.8 tok/s	Tight fit
86 ptsExcellent (S) · 86 of 100 points: Model quality 33.6/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Ornith 1.0 35B-A3BDeepReinforce	`Q3_K_M`	20.1 GB	34.8 tok/s	Tight fit
85 ptsExcellent (S) · 85 of 100 points: Model quality 32.9/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Agents-A1 35B-A3BInternScience	`Q3_K_M`	19.7 GB	34.8 tok/s	Tight fit
85 ptsExcellent (S) · 85 of 100 points: Model quality 32.9/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 14.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen AgentWorld 35B-A3BAlibaba	`Q3_K_M`	19.5 GB	34.8 tok/s	Tight fit
85 ptsExcellent (S) · 85 of 100 points: Model quality 40.9/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 5.7/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba	`Q4_K_M`	19.8 GB	5.8 tok/s	Tight fit
85 ptsExcellent (S) · 85 of 100 points: Model quality 34.2/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 12.3/15, Memory use 15.0/15	North Mini Code 1.0 (30B-A3B)Cohere	`Q4_K_M`	21.2 GB	27.0 tok/s	Tight fit
84 ptsGreat (A) · 84 of 100 points: Model quality 40.2/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 5.7/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba	`Q4_K_M`	19.8 GB	5.8 tok/s	Tight fit

Best Image models for the Apple M5 (32 GB)

Grade · points	Model	Precision	Memory	Time per output	Fit
86 ptsExcellent (S) · 86 of 100 points: Model quality 35.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 11.8/15, Memory use 15.0/15	FLUX.2 [klein] 4BBlack Forest Labs	`FP16`	18.1 GB	16 s	Runs well
84 ptsGreat (A) · 84 of 100 points: Model quality 37.0/45, Memory fit 23.0/25, Speed 9.3/15, Memory use 15.0/15	FLUX.2 [klein] 9BBlack Forest Labs	`FP8`	19.9 GB	26 s	Tight fit
83 ptsGreat (A) · 83 of 100 points: Model quality 37.0/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 7.9/15, Memory use 13.5/15	Z-Image TurboAlibaba (Tongyi)	`FP8`	12.6 GB	36 s	Runs well
78 ptsGreat (A) · 78 of 100 points: Model quality 36.5/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 2.7/15, Memory use 14.0/15	Z-ImageAlibaba (Tongyi)	`Q8 GGUF`	13.0 GB	5.2 min	Runs well
77 ptsGreat (A) · 77 of 100 points: Model quality 36.2/45, Memory fit 23.0/25, Speed 3.6/15, Memory use 15.0/15	FLUX.1 Krea [dev]Black Forest Labs	`FP8`	19.6 GB	2.9 min	Tight fit
77 ptsGreat (A) · 77 of 100 points: Model quality 30.9/45, Memory fit 23.0/25, Speed 8.8/15, Memory use 15.0/15	FLUX.1 [schnell]Black Forest Labs	`FP8`	19.6 GB	29 s	Tight fit

Best Video models for the Apple M5 (32 GB)

Grade · points	Model	Precision	Memory	Time per output	Fit
70 ptsGood (B) · 70 of 100 points: Model quality 31.0/45, Memory fit 23.0/25, Speed 1.5/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Wan 2.1 I2V 14B 480PAlibaba	`Q4 GGUF`	20.6 GB	4.8 h	Tight fit
69 ptsGood (B) · 69 of 100 points: Model quality 22.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 10.6/15, Memory use 11.6/15	LTX-Video 2BLightricks	`FP8`	10.8 GB	6.0 min	Runs well
68 ptsGood (B) · 68 of 100 points: Model quality 31.8/45, Memory fit 20.0/25, Speed 1.4/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Wan 2.2 S2V 14B (speech to video)Alibaba	`Q4 GGUF`	15.6 GB	5.6 h	Runs well
68 ptsGood (B) · 68 of 100 points: Model quality 32.6/45, Memory fit 18.0/25, Speed 2.6/15, Memory use 15.0/15	FramePack I2V (HunyuanVideo 13B)lllyasviel	`FP8`	19.6 GB	1.7 h	Tight fit
68 ptsGood (B) · 68 of 100 points: Model quality 24.3/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 3.9/15, Memory use 15.0/15	CogVideoX 5BZhipu AI	`FP8`	14.3 GB	43.3 min	Runs well

Best LLMs by task on this hardware Open in Model Finder

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.