Best Local LLMs for 64GB RAM

Ranked open-weight models that run well on a 64GB machine, with estimated speed and the exact ollama command for each.

Best local models for ~64GB

12 picks

Estimates assume a representative Apple-Silicon machine with 64GB unified memory. Tok/s are ModelFit estimates, not measured benchmarks. Run the wizard for figures tuned to your exact chip.

01

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (Q8)

Qwen / 35B / Q8_0 / ~38.7 GB

Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agents·Perf: ~36.9 tok/s · first token ~1.5s

Runs well

This model may feel memory-heavy on 64 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.6:35b-a3b-q8_0
02

Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Instruct (Q8)

Qwen / 35B / Q8_0 / ~38.7 GB

Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agent scenarios·Perf: ~36.9 tok/s · first token ~1.5s

Runs well

This model may feel memory-heavy on 64 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b-q8_0
03

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

Qwen / 35B / Q4_K_M / ~22 GB

Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agents·Perf: ~67.4 tok/s · first token ~1.4s

Runs well

Best for reasoning, coding, agents. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.6:35b-a3b
04

Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Instruct

Qwen / 35B / Q4_K_M / ~20 GB

Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agent scenarios·Perf: ~67.4 tok/s · first token ~1.4s

Runs well

Best for reasoning, coding, agent scenarios. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b
05

Gemma 4 26B-A4B (Q8)

Gemma / 26B / Q8_0 / ~28.1 GB

Best for: Chat, Coding, Multimodal·Perf: ~37.1 tok/s · first token ~0.7s

Runs well

Best for chat, coding, multimodal. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run gemma4:26b-a4b-it-q8_0
06

Qwen3.6 27B (Q8)

Qwen / 27B / Q8_0 / ~30 GB

Best for: Coding, Quality, Long context·Perf: ~14 tok/s · first token ~1.2s

Runs well

Best for coding, quality, long context. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.6:27b-q8_0
07

Gemma 4 26B-A4B

Gemma / 26B / Q4_K_M / ~16 GB

Best for: Chat, Coding, Multimodal·Perf: ~67.7 tok/s · first token ~0.6s

Perfect fit

Best for chat, coding, multimodal. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run gemma4:26b
08

Qwen3.5 27B Instruct

Qwen / 27B / Q4_K_M / ~16 GB

Best for: Chat, Coding, Complex reasoning·Perf: ~25.6 tok/s · first token ~0.8s

Perfect fit

Best for chat, coding, complex reasoning. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.5:27b
09

Qwen3.6 27B

Qwen / 27B / Q4_K_M / ~18 GB

Best for: Coding, Quality, Long context·Perf: ~25.6 tok/s · first token ~0.8s

Perfect fit

Best for coding, quality, long context. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.6:27b
10

Qwen3 30B

Qwen / 30B / Q4_K_M / ~22 GB

Best for: Quality, Coding·Perf: ~72.8 tok/s · first token ~1.4s

Runs well

Best for quality, coding. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3:30b
11

NVIDIA Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B

Nemotron / 30B / Q6_K / ~24 GB

Best for: Reasoning, Math, Agentic tasks·Perf: ~51.5 tok/s · first token ~1.4s

Runs well

Best for reasoning, math, agentic tasks. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run nemotron-cascade-2:30b
12

Gemma 4 31B

Gemma / 31B / Q4_K_M / ~20 GB

Best for: Quality, Coding, Multimodal·Perf: ~22.3 tok/s · first token ~1.7s

Runs well

Best for quality, coding, multimodal. Strong fit for 64 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run gemma4:31b

Want an exact recommendation?

The wizard tunes picks and speed estimates to your exact device, chip, and RAM.