Can I run it?
Can I run Qwen3.8 35B A3B Distill on Apple M5?
Won't fit
Won't fit on Apple M5. The smallest quant Q2_K is 12.9 GB before KV cache, and usable memory is 11.0 GB.
Best quantQ2_K
Working context—
Max that fits—
Speed—
Weights12.9 GB
KV cache0.00 GB
Total0.00 GB
Usable11.0 GB
Qwen3.8 35B A3B Distill details · Apple M5 page · How this estimate is made
Run commands
llama.cpp
llama-server -hf empero-ai/Qwen3.8-35B-A3B-Distill-GGUF:Q2_K -c 2048 -ngl 0
Ollama
ollama run qwen3.8
LM Studio
lms get empero-ai/Qwen3.8-35B-A3B-Distill-GGUF # Then load quant Q2_K
Assumptions
- Estimate, not a benchmark. Decode speed uses a memory-bandwidth model at 55–75% of peak.
- KV cache is FP16. Engine overhead assumes llama.cpp (0.3 GB + 1% of the weights). Ollama is closer to 0.9 GB + 3%, LM Studio closer to 1 GB + 3%.
- No display reserve on this device.
- Usable memory for this profile is 11.0 GB.
Models that fit this machine more comfortably
- Can I run Qwen3.6 35B A3B on Apple M5? — Tight fit, UD-IQ2_XXS, 77–104 tok/s
- Can I run Qwen3.5 35B A3B on Apple M5? — Tight fit, UD-IQ2_XXS, 77–105 tok/s
- Can I run Kwaipilot KAT Coder V2.5 Dev on Apple M5? — Tight fit, IQ2_S, 40–55 tok/s
Updated 2026-10-17. Profile on this page is the device default.