Can MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB run Step-3.5-Flash?

Apple · 128 GB LPDDR5 · 400 GB/s bandwidth · StepFun · 196.8B (active 11.0B) · MoE · model ctx up to 256K

Yes — the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB (128 GB LPDDR5) can run Step-3.5-Flash. At Q4 with the default 8K context it needs ≈ 111.44 GB VRAM (weights 108.24 GB + KV cache 2.2 GB + 1 GB runtime overhead), which fits within 128 GB. Decode at Q4/8K: ≈ 23.1 tok/s (estimated, batch 1). FP16 needs ≈ 396.8 GB — does not fit on this card. Estimates come from memory-bandwidth math; rows tagged measured override estimates. Relative ranking is more reliable than absolute tok/s. Methodology.

Fit & speed by quant and context

Quant	Context	VRAM needed	Fits?	tok/s (decode)
Q4	4K	110.34 GB	Yes	23.1 est.
Q4	8K default	111.44 GB	Yes	23.1 est.
Q4	32K	118.04 GB	Yes	23.1 est.
FP16	4K	395.7 GB	No	1.9 est.
FP16	8K default	396.8 GB	No	1.9 est.
FP16	32K	403.4 GB	No	1.8 est.

Fits = weights + KV(ctx) + 1 GB overhead ≤ 95% of VRAM. Measured anchors are context-agnostic; the fit verdict is recomputed per context. A missing tok/s means the model is far beyond this card (offload-only territory).

VRAM breakdown at 8K context

Quant	Weights	KV cache	Overhead	Total needed	MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB VRAM
Q4	108.24 GB	2.2 GB	1 GB	111.44 GB	128 GB
FP16	393.6 GB	2.2 GB	1 GB	396.8 GB	128 GB

Other GPUs that run Step-3.5-Flash

• B200 192GB SXM — ≈462.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• MI300X 192GB — ≈306.6 tok/s Q4 est.
• H200 141GB SXM5 — ≈277.7 tok/s Q4 est.
• Gaudi 3 128GB — ≈189.5 tok/s Q4 est.
• Mac Studio M2 Ultra 192GB — ≈46.3 tok/s Q4 est.
• MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB — ≈31.6 tok/s Q4 est.

All GPUs for Step-3.5-Flash →

Other models for the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB

• MiniCPM5-1B — ≈235.7 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3.5-2B — ≈127.3 tok/s Q4 est.
• GLM-4.7-Flash — ≈84.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 — ≈84.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct — ≈84.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3-Coder-Next — ≈84.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3.5-35B-A3B — ≈84.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3.6-35B-A3B — ≈84.8 tok/s Q4 est.

All models on the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB →