Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023, M2 Max 38-core GPU): which AI models can it run?

Estimated from the specifications below. Choose the memory size you have or plan to buy, then read the table for that size.

Specifications

Brand

Apple

Year

2023

Chip

Apple M2 Max

Processor

12-core CPU

Graphics

38-core GPU

Memory type

unified memory

Memory options

32 GB, 64 GB, 96 GB

Memory bandwidth

400 GB/s

Sources: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111838

Apple lists 400GB/s and 32GB base memory, configurable to 64GB or 96GB. A 30-core GPU option also exists and is not listed separately.

With 32 GB of memory

About 22.4 GB of it can hold a model.

Models marked "thinks first" can write out their reasoning before they answer, so a job takes longer than the speed alone suggests.

With 64 GB of memory

About 44.8 GB of it can hold a model.

Models marked "thinks first" can write out their reasoning before they answer, so a job takes longer than the speed alone suggests.

With 96 GB of memory

About 67.2 GB of it can hold a model.

Models marked "thinks first" can write out their reasoning before they answer, so a job takes longer than the speed alone suggests.

Reported by others

Other people ran the standard llama-bench test on this chip and published the results. They are not Findra scores. The test uses a small 7-billion-parameter model, so larger models will be slower than these figures. All published benchmarks.

Reported by others, not tested by us. Results come from a public community thread; builds and settings differ between submitters.

Rendering speed (Blender Open Data)

Blender Open Data publishes the median render score of the Cycles test for each chip, from results people submitted. Higher is faster. These are not Findra scores; the table says what each score was rendered on. Scores from different Blender versions are not directly comparable.

Editing, gaming, CAD and other work

Each app below publishes a minimum and a recommended system requirement. We compare them with this laptop's memory and graphics memory. We do not judge the graphics chip's class, the processor generation or the operating system, because the makers describe those in words: check the source link for the exact card, processor and system they name. Many apps and games run only on Windows or only on macOS. Integrated graphics count as below any requirement for a dedicated card. Not known means the maker does not state this laptop's graphics memory.

Labels follow the makers' published lists. All use cases.

Speed is the speed of writing an answer, shown as a range. Reading speed is not estimated. How the estimates work · How close they are · Back to the finder