text model · ERNIE · macOS
Can I run ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B on Apple M4 Max (128GB)?
Yes. ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B runs on Apple M4 Max (128GB) at Q4_K_M (~14.3 GB of ~96 GB usable).
Runs at Q4_K_M using ~14.3 GB of ~96 GB usable. You have room for FP16 for higher quality.
That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes. Apple M4 Max (128GB) leaves ~81.7 GB of headroom, room to step up to FP16 for higher quality.
- Q4_K_M needed
- ~14.3 GB
- Usable on device
- ~96 GB
- Device memory
- 128 GB
- Best quant
- Q4_K_M
Which quant fits
Run it
Pick your tool. All 2 load the same Q4_K_M weights.
llama-cli -hf unsloth/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT-GGUF:Q4_K_M lms get unsloth/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-PT-GGUF How to run it
On macOS use LM Studio (Polished GUI, ships MLX on Apple Silicon, one-click model downloads.).
- Parameters
- 21B (MoE, 3B active)
- Q4_K_M size
- 12.42 GB
- Q8_0 size
- 21.61 GB
- Context
- 131k
- Memory
- 128 GB unified
- Usable for weights
- ~96 GB
- Power draw
- ~145 W
- Best runtime
- MLX direct / Ollama (MLX backend)
You could also run
Run ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B on other hardware
FAQ
Can Apple M4 Max (128GB) run ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B?
Yes. ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B runs on Apple M4 Max (128GB) at Q4_K_M (~14.3 GB of ~96 GB usable).
How much memory does ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B need?
Apple M4 Max (128GB) has room to spare. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~12.42 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~14.3 GB at a 4k context. It is a Mixture-of-Experts model (21B total / 3B active), so all experts must stay in memory; memory tracks total params, not active params.
What is the best tool to run ERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B on macOS?
LM Studio for a simple setup; mlx-lm for the most speed. vLLM is NOT a Mac tool, it is a CUDA/Linux serving engine. Unified memory is not a fixed VRAM slice; ~70% is usable for weights.
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A live badge for your model card or README, updated as the data is. [](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/ernie-4.5-21b-a3b/apple-m4-max-128gb) Sources
Weights are measured from GGUF files; KV cache and overhead are computed, so totals can vary ~15% with context and runtime. Any tok/s is a bandwidth estimate. See methodology.