The LLMCheck index estimates Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B at ~39 tok/s on an M3 Max at 4-bit, scaled from its community-measured M5 Max run with the published bandwidth model, not a measured run on this chip. It needs about 45 GB of unified memory. It is NVIDIA's 74B mixture-of-experts model (9B active), released under the OpenMDW licence.
Stock llama.cpp runs it from b11755, but NVIDIA's 24 GB GGUF falls back to the CPU on its NVFP4 layers (use a Q4_K_M file); Ollama does not support it on Apple Silicon (PR #19229) and stock mlx-lm cannot load it.
This is an LLMCheck index estimate from its published two-term bandwidth model, not a measured run; the index labels it so everywhere it appears. Own this Mac? Submit a real run →
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Tokens per second | estimated~39 tok/s |
| Provenance | estimate · how estimates are made |
| Quantization | 4-bit |
| Engine | MLX |
| Figure dated | 2026-10 |
| Minimum RAM | 45 GB |
| Parameters | 74B MoE (9B active) |
| Chip bandwidth | 400 GB/s |
Each row as the index holds it, with its source. “Mac RAM” is the memory of the Mac a run used, not the model’s requirement (45 GB). The headline figure follows the reference rule: the lower-median measured plain-decode run at 5 bits or fewer (a run whose quant was not stated counts only when no stated-quant run qualifies), else the estimate; a run marked “not used to anchor estimates” is listed here but never becomes the headline.
| Speed | Quant | Engine | Mac RAM | Context | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| community50.8 tok/s | IQ2_XXS | MLX | 128 GB | 1k | omlx.ai | 40-core GPU. oMLX v0.7.2 with the bundle's custom loader, NVIDIA's 24 GB checkpoint, so it does not anchor; 23.9 GB peak. 47.5 tok/s at 4k.; not used to anchor estimates |
| community44 tok/s | 4-bit | MLX | 128 GB | generation length not stated | blog.bytebunkerlabs.ai | mlx_lm with a ported nemotron_h_puzzle loader (stock mlx-lm cannot build Bolt), so it does not anchor; rapid-mlx MLX-4bit conversion with the MTP head dropped; 43.6 GB resident. The post is undated (about 16 Oct, updated 17 Oct).; not used to anchor estimates |
| estimated39 tok/s | 4-bit | MLX | 64 GB | — | LLMCheck estimator | — |
Ollama — the index has not verified an Ollama tag for Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B, so it doesn’t print one (a guessed tag fails with “pull model manifest: file does not exist”). Search the Ollama library →
MLX — pick a build from Hugging Face’s MLX listings, then run it with its repo id:
Downloads: Hugging Face repo → · model card →
Prefer a GUI? LM Studio downloads GGUF and MLX builds in one click. Step by step: install Ollama on a Mac.
NVIDIA's OpenMDW 74B MoE (9B active), compressed from Super VL, with a native 2-bit '24 GB' build (15 Oct 2026). Stock llama.cpp runs it on Metal from b11755 (PR #30699, merged 20 Oct), but NVIDIA's 24 GB GGUF runs its NVFP4 layers on the CPU, so use a Q4_K_M file; Ollama does not support it on Apple Silicon (PR #19229 is open). mlx-vlm 0.7.9+ loads it: ~43 GB at 4-bit, with community runs of 58–72 tok/s (4-/5-bit) on an M5 Max. NVIDIA's ~24 GB IQ2 checkpoint ran at ~73 tok/s on a 64 GB M5 Max in oMLX (community, custom loader).
OpenMDW licence · 74B MoE · 256K context · LLMCheck capability 40/50 · see its leaderboard rank →
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B needs about 45 GB of unified memory. These current Apple Silicon Macs have the headroom to run it comfortably:
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