Run Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on M6

Yes — Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B) runs at 17 tok/s on M6 with 32 GB RAM using Q4_K_M quantization via MLX. First token latency is Nones. A capable open-source LLM with 30B parameters.

Speed
estimated17
tok/s
First Token
estimatedNone
seconds
RAM Needed
32
GB minimum
Engine
MLX
recommended
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Benchmark Details

The LLMCheck index estimates Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on M6 using our published methodology: Q4_K_M quantization, memory-bandwidth scaling, and cross-referenced third-party benchmarks where available. Figures are transparent estimates — own this config? Submit a real benchmark →

MetricValue
Tokens per second17 tok/s
Time to first tokenNones
QuantizationQ4_K_M
Minimum RAM32 GB
Recommended engineMLX
Parameters30B
Benchmark date2026-08

Q4_K_M 30B MLX M6

Setup Guide: Run Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on M6

The recommended engine for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on M6 is MLX. Install with pip and pull the model:

pip install mlx-lm
mlx_lm.generate --model mlx-community/nemotron-35-lightning-q4_k_m --prompt "Hello!"

Alternatively, you can use Ollama for a simpler setup:

ollama run nemotron-35-lightning

Performance on Other Apple Silicon Chips

ChipSpeedFirst TokenMin RAMEngine
M5 Max 60 tok/s 0.2s 64 GB MLX
M4 Max 55 tok/s 0.3s 48 GB MLX
M4 Pro 28 tok/s 0.4s 24 GB Ollama

System Requirements

To run Nemotron 3.5 Lightning on M6 you need:

🛒 Get a Mac that runs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning needs about 32 GB of unified memory. These current Apple Silicon Macs have the headroom to run it comfortably:

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Compare More Models

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