text model · Seed-OSS · macOS

Can I run Seed-OSS 36B Instruct on Apple M4 Pro (48GB)?

Compatibility verdict VRAM threshold engine

Yes, it runs usable speed ~11 tok/s est.

Yes. Seed-OSS 36B Instruct runs on Apple M4 Pro (48GB) at Q4_K_M (~22.5 GB of ~32 GB usable).

Needs ~22.5 GB Device usable ~32 GB

Runs at Q4_K_M using ~22.5 GB of ~32 GB usable.

That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes. Apple M4 Pro (48GB) leaves ~9.5 GB of headroom.

Q4_K_M needed: ~22.5 GB
Usable on device: ~32 GB
Device memory: 48 GB
Best quant: Q4_K_M

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Which quant fits

Quant ladder vs ~32 GB usable

Q2_K

~17.3 GB

Q3_K_M

~19.8 GB

Q4_K_M

~22.5 GB

Q5_K_M

~27.9 GB

Q6_K

~31.7 GB

Q8_0

~38 GB

FP16

~74.5 GB

The line marks Apple M4 Pro (48GB)'s ~32 GB budget; rungs past it are too large.

Running cost · estimate

Power & economics est.

Power draw: ~140 W
Electricity / 1M tokens: ~$0.53

At ~$0.15/kWh and the estimated ~11 tok/s, a million generated tokens costs about $0.53 in electricity. TDP is the peak draw, so this is an upper bound. Assumptions.

Run it

Install commands macOS

Pick your tool. All 2 load the same Q4_K_M weights.

llama.cpp

$ llama-cli -hf bartowski/ByteDance-Seed_Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M

LM Studio

$ lms get bartowski/ByteDance-Seed_Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct-GGUF

How to run it

On macOS use LM Studio (Polished GUI, ships MLX on Apple Silicon, one-click model downloads.).

Model Seed-OSS

Parameters: 36B
Q4_K_M size: 20.27 GB
Q8_0 size: 35.78 GB
Context: 512k

Full Seed-OSS 36B Instruct requirements →

Device macOS

Memory: 48 GB unified
Usable for weights: ~32 GB
Power draw: ~140 W
Best runtime: Ollama (MLX backend) / MLX direct

Best models for Apple M4 Pro (48GB) →

You could also run

Run Seed-OSS 36B Instruct on other hardware

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 (24GB)AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 (32GB)32GB RAM Laptop (CPU/iGPU only)Apple M5 Pro (48GB)

FAQ

Can Apple M4 Pro (48GB) run Seed-OSS 36B Instruct?

Yes. Seed-OSS 36B Instruct runs on Apple M4 Pro (48GB) at Q4_K_M (~22.5 GB of ~32 GB usable).

How much memory does Seed-OSS 36B Instruct need?

Apple M4 Pro (48GB) has room to spare. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~20.27 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~22.5 GB at a 4k context.

What is the best tool to run Seed-OSS 36B Instruct 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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Markdown

[![Seed-OSS 36B Instruct on Apple M4 Pro (48GB)](https://localmodel.run/badge/seed-oss-36b/apple-m4-pro-48gb.svg)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/seed-oss-36b/apple-m4-pro-48gb)

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.