01
Qwen3 235B A22B
Qwen / 235B / Q4_K_M / ~130 GB
Best for: Quality, Reasoning·Perf: ~9.2 tok/s · first token ~2.3s
Best for quality, reasoning. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3:235b-a22b-q4_K_M
Best Local LLMs for 256GB RAM
Ranked open-weight models that run well on a 256GB machine, with estimated speed and the exact ollama command for each.
Try: RTX 4090, MacBook Pro M4, 16GB, iPhone 17 Pro
Best local models for ~256GB
12 picksEstimates assume a representative Apple-Silicon machine with 256GB unified memory. Tok/s are ModelFit estimates, not measured benchmarks. Run the wizard for figures tuned to your exact chip.
Runs well
02
GPT-OSS 120B
GPT-OSS / 117B / MXFP4 / ~65.4 GB
Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agents·Perf: ~28.6 tok/s · first token ~1.6s
Best for reasoning, coding, agents. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gpt-oss:120b
03
Qwen3.5 122B-A10B Instruct
Qwen / 122B / Q4_K_M / ~72 GB
Best for: Frontier-level reasoning, Complex tasks·Perf: ~18.9 tok/s · first token ~1.8s
Best for frontier-level reasoning, complex tasks. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:122b-a10b
04
Llama 4 Scout
Llama / 109B / Q4_K_M / ~67 GB
Best for: Long context, Quality, Multimodal·Perf: ~15.4 tok/s · first token ~1.9s
Best for long context, quality, multimodal. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run llama4:scout
05
Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Q8)
Qwen / 80B / Q8_0 / ~84.8 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding, Long Context·Perf: ~23.4 tok/s · first token ~1.7s
Best for chat, coding, long context. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3-next:80b-a3b-instruct-q8_0
06
Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B
Qwen / 80B / Q4_K_M / ~50.4 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding, Long Context·Perf: ~42.7 tok/s · first token ~1.5s
Best for chat, coding, long context. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3-next:80b
07
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (Q8)
Qwen / 35B / Q8_0 / ~38.7 GB
Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agents·Perf: ~35.3 tok/s · first token ~1.5s
Best for reasoning, coding, agents. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.6:35b-a3b-q8_0
08
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Instruct (Q8)
Qwen / 35B / Q8_0 / ~38.7 GB
Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agent scenarios·Perf: ~35.3 tok/s · first token ~1.5s
Best for reasoning, coding, agent scenarios. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b-q8_0
09
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Qwen / 35B / Q4_K_M / ~22 GB
Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agents·Perf: ~64.6 tok/s · first token ~1.4s
Best for reasoning, coding, agents. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.6:35b-a3b
10
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Instruct
Qwen / 35B / Q4_K_M / ~20 GB
Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agent scenarios·Perf: ~64.6 tok/s · first token ~1.4s
Best for reasoning, coding, agent scenarios. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b
11
Gemma 4 26B-A4B
Gemma / 26B / Q4_K_M / ~16 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding, Multimodal·Perf: ~64.9 tok/s · first token ~0.6s
Best for chat, coding, multimodal. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma4:26b
12
Qwen3.5 4B Instruct
Qwen / 4B / Q4_K_M / ~3.5 GB
Best for: Coding, Agents, Multimodal·Perf: ~165.4 tok/s · first token ~0.5s
Best for coding, agents, multimodal. Strong fit for 256 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:4b
Want an exact recommendation?
The wizard tunes picks and speed estimates to your exact device, chip, and RAM.