Best Local LLMs for 96GB RAM

Ranked open-weight models that run well on a 96GB machine, with estimated speed and the exact ollama command for each.

Best local models for ~96GB

12 picks

Estimates assume a representative Apple-Silicon machine with 96GB unified memory. Tok/s are ModelFit estimates, not measured benchmarks. Run the wizard for figures tuned to your exact chip.

01

Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B

Qwen / 80B / Q4_K_M / ~50.4 GB

Best for: Chat, Coding, Long Context·Perf: ~44.6 tok/s · first token ~1.5s

Runs well

Best for chat, coding, long context. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3-next:80b
02

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

Best for reasoning, coding, agents. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.6:35b-a3b-q8_0
03

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

Best for reasoning, coding, agent scenarios. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b-q8_0
04

GPT-OSS 120B

GPT-OSS / 117B / MXFP4 / ~65.4 GB

Best for: Reasoning, Coding, Agents·Perf: ~29.8 tok/s · first token ~1.6s

Runs well

This model may feel memory-heavy on 96 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run gpt-oss:120b
05

Qwen3.5 122B-A10B Instruct

Qwen / 122B / Q4_K_M / ~72 GB

Best for: Frontier-level reasoning, Complex tasks·Perf: ~19 tok/s · first token ~1.8s

Runs well

This model may feel memory-heavy on 96 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.5:122b-a10b
06

Llama 4 Scout

Llama / 109B / Q4_K_M / ~67 GB

Best for: Long context, Quality, Multimodal·Perf: ~16.1 tok/s · first token ~1.9s

Runs well

This model may feel memory-heavy on 96 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run llama4:scout
07

Llama 3.3 70B Instruct

Llama / 70B / Q4_K_M / ~42 GB

Best for: Quality, Coding·Perf: ~9.9 tok/s · first token ~2.3s

Runs well

Best for quality, coding. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run llama3.3:70b-instruct-q4_K_M
08

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

Perfect fit

Best for chat, coding, multimodal. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run gemma4:26b-a4b-it-q8_0
09

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

Perfect fit

Best for reasoning, coding, agents. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$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: ~67.4 tok/s · first token ~1.4s

Perfect fit

Best for reasoning, coding, agent scenarios. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b
11

Qwen3.6 27B (Q8)

Qwen / 27B / Q8_0 / ~30 GB

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

Perfect fit

Best for coding, quality, long context. Strong fit for 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run qwen3.6:27b-q8_0
12

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 96 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama
$ollama run gemma4:26b

Want an exact recommendation?

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