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text model · Qwen2.5-Coder · macOS

Can I run Qwen2.5 Coder 32B on Apple M5 (16GB)?

Compatibility verdict VRAM threshold engine
No, not enough memory would not load

No. Qwen2.5 Coder 32B needs ~20.7 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Apple M5 (16GB) only has ~10.5 GB usable.

Needs ~20.7 GB Device usable ~10.5 GB

Needs ~20.7 GB even at Q4_K_M, but only ~10.5 GB is usable.

That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes.

The gap is about 10.2 GB: Qwen2.5 Coder 32B needs roughly 20.7 GB at Q4_K_M and Apple M5 (16GB) leaves only about 10.5 GB usable for a model. The lightest tracked hardware that runs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB) at 24 GB. See Qwen2.5 Coder 32B on Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB).

Q4_K_M needed
~20.7 GB
Usable on device
~10.5 GB
Device memory
16 GB
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Which quant fits

Quant ladder vs ~10.5 GB usable
Q2_K
~15.6 GB
Q3_K_M
~17.8 GB
Q4_K_M
~20.7 GB
Q5_K_M
~25 GB
Q6_K
~28.4 GB
Q8_0
~34.6 GB
FP16
~66.2 GB
The line marks Apple M5 (16GB)'s ~10.5 GB budget; rungs past it are too large.
Model Qwen2.5-Coder
Parameters
32B
Q4_K_M size
18.49 GB
Q8_0 size
32.43 GB
Context
32k
Ollama tag
qwen2.5-coder:32b
Full Qwen2.5 Coder 32B requirements →
Device macOS
Memory
16 GB unified
Usable for weights
~10.5 GB
Best runtime
MLX direct / Ollama (MLX backend)
Best models for Apple M5 (16GB) →

What you can run instead

Run Qwen2.5 Coder 32B on other hardware

FAQ

Can Apple M5 (16GB) run Qwen2.5 Coder 32B?

No. Qwen2.5 Coder 32B needs ~20.7 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Apple M5 (16GB) only has ~10.5 GB usable.

How much memory does Qwen2.5 Coder 32B need?

Apple M5 (16GB) does not have enough memory. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~18.49 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~20.7 GB at a 4k context.

What is the best tool to run Qwen2.5 Coder 32B 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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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.