Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB vs Mac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB

For running models locally, priced in the UK. At 128k context the first runs 42 models fully in memory, the second 42.

Specifications

SpecMac Studio M3 Ultra 256GBMac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB
ChipApple M3 Ultra (80-core GPU)Apple M3 Ultra (80-core GPU)
Memory bus1024-bit1024-bit
Memory bandwidth819 GB/s819 GB/s
FP16 compute28 TFLOPS28 TFLOPS
SoftwareMetalMetal
Unified memory256 GB512 GB
GPU can use by default192 GB384 GB
GPU can use, tuned248 GB504 GB
Operating systemmacosmacos
ProcessorM3 Ultra 32-coreM3 Ultra 32-core
Storage2000 GB2000 GB

What each runs

Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.

ModelMac Studio M3 Ultra 256GBMac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB
DeepSeek V4 Flash14tok/sUD-Q4_K_XL14tok/sUD-Q4_K_XL
GLM 5.3 Flash18tok/sUD-Q4_K_XL11tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.8 Flash Next5tok/sQ8_05tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.8 27B14tok/sQ8_014tok/sQ8_0
MiniMax M2.78tok/sUD-Q5_K_M7tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B23tok/sQ8_023tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.6 27B14tok/sQ8_014tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 Coder Next43tok/sQ8_043tok/sQ8_0
gpt-oss 120B40tok/sMXFP440tok/sMXFP4
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B23tok/sQ8_023tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 31B12tok/sQ8_012tok/sQ8_0
Mistral Small 4 119B30tok/sQ8_030tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B55tok/sQ8_055tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 27B14tok/sQ8_014tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 26B-A4B45tok/sQ8_045tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.5 Air8tok/sQ8_08tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B55tok/sQ8_055tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B50tok/sQ8_050tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.7 Flash26tok/sQ8_026tok/sQ8_0
Devstral Small 2 24B11tok/sQ8_011tok/sQ8_0
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B76tok/sUD-Q6_K_XL76tok/sUD-Q6_K_XL
Kimi Linear 48B-A3B75tok/sQ8_075tok/sQ8_0
gpt-oss 20B57tok/sMXFP457tok/sMXFP4
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B20tok/sQ8_020tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 32B8tok/sQ8_08tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 12B35tok/sQ8_035tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B38tok/sQ8_038tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 3 27B13tok/sQ8_013tok/sQ8_0
Mistral Small 3.2 24B11tok/sQ8_011tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B8tok/sQ8_08tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.3 70B5tok/sQ8_05tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 14B15tok/sQ8_015tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 14B14tok/sQ8_014tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B19tok/sQ8_019tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8B19tok/sQ8_019tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14B13tok/sQ8_013tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B60tok/sQ8_060tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B20tok/sQ8_020tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8B17tok/sQ8_017tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B44tok/sQ8_044tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B43tok/sQ8_043tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B22tok/sQ6_K22tok/sQ6_K