Will it run? / Qwen2.5 72B / Mac mini M2 (16GB)

Can the Mac mini M2 (16GB) run Qwen2.5 72B?

Won't fit No. Qwen2.5 72B needs about 48.5 GB of memory, and the Mac mini M2 (16GB) can give a model about 10.7 GB. You'd need a machine with more memory, or a smaller model.

–estimated tokens/sec
48.5 GBmemory needed
10.7 GBavailable to the model
100 GB/smemory bandwidth

Check the Mac mini M2 (16GB) price →

How we got this number

Each generated token reads the whole model from memory once: 47 GB. The Mac mini M2 (16GB) moves 100 GB/s, so the ceiling is 2.1 tokens/sec. Real machines reach a fraction of that ceiling; we use 80%, calibrated against a measured Mac run. Send us your real numbers and we'll replace the estimate.

Faster machines for Qwen2.5 72B

Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB)21 tok/s$5,499Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Ultra (256GB)21 tok/s$9,499Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Max (40-core GPU, 64GB)6.3 tok/s$3,799Check price →
NVIDIA DGX Spark (128GB)4.1 tok/sCheck price →

Other models on the Mac mini M2 (16GB)

Gemma 4 E4BUsable, but slow5.0 tok/s
starCoder 2 15BToo slow to enjoy4.8 tok/s