Will it run? / Qwen3.5 35B (A3B) / Mac mini M2 (16GB)

Can the Mac mini M2 (16GB) run Qwen3.5 35B (A3B)?

Won't fit No. Qwen3.5 35B (A3B) needs about 25.5 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
25.5 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 active part of the model from memory once: 2.1 GB. The Mac mini M2 (16GB) moves 100 GB/s, so the ceiling is 48 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 Qwen3.5 35B (A3B)

Mac Studio M5 Max (40-core GPU, 64GB)120+ tok/s$3,799Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB)120+ tok/s$5,499Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Ultra (256GB)120+ tok/s$9,499Check price →
Mac mini M5 Pro (64GB)64 tok/sCheck price →

Other models on the Mac mini M2 (16GB)

lfm 2.5 8B (A1B)Fast65 tok/s
Llama 3.1 8BComfortable16 tok/s
Qwen 7BComfortable16 tok/s
dolPhin 3 8BComfortable16 tok/s
Gemma 7BComfortable16 tok/s
codeGemma 7BComfortable16 tok/s