Can I run it?
Can I run Swift Qwen3.8 27B on Apple M1 Max?
Runs
Runs fully in unified memory on your Apple M1 Max at Q5_K_M, 8K context, about 11–14 tok/s. Weights 18.8 GB plus 0.57 GB of KV cache — 19.9 GB of 24.0 GB usable. Up to 64K context still fits.
Best quantQ5_K_M
Working context8K
Max that fits64K
Speed11–14 tok/s
Weights18.8 GB
KV cache0.57 GB
Total19.9 GB
Usable24.0 GB
Swift Qwen3.8 27B details · Apple M1 Max page · How this estimate is made
Run commands
llama.cpp
llama-server -hf ukisai/Swift-Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:Q5_K_M -c 8192 -ngl 64
No matching name in the Ollama library snapshot.
LM Studio
lms get ukisai/Swift-Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF # Then load quant Q5_K_M
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%.
- Q5_K_M size is the real GGUF file size from Hugging Face.
- Unified memory uses 75% for the GPU by default, and always leaves about 5 GB for the OS.
- Speed is quoted at 8K context, not at the maximum context that still fits.
Larger models that also fit
- Can I run Qwen3.8 27B on Apple M1 Max? — Tight fit, UD-Q6_K_L, 9.0–12 tok/s
- Can I run Qwen3.6 35B A3B on Apple M1 Max? — Tight fit, UD-Q4_K_XL, 105–143 tok/s
- Can I run Qwen3.8 35B A3B Distill on Apple M1 Max? — Tight fit, Q4_K_M, 110–150 tok/s
Updated 2026-10-24. Profile on this page is the device default.