64GB Mac users debate best sub-40B MoE: is Qwen-3.8-35B worth the wait?
chibop1 · reddit · 2026-09-03
An r/LocalLLaMA user with an M3 Max 64GB machine asks for the best MoE model under 40B parameters. They find Qwen-3.8-27B excellent but slow on their machine, and wonder whether Qwen-3.6-35B is still the top pick or if Qwen-3.8-35B is worth waiting for.
The thread highlights a real pain point for 64GB unified-memory Mac users: even with MoE's efficiency, speed-vs-quality tradeoffs remain when picking local models.
More from Models
- Researcher Finds Two Windows 0-Days, First in 76 Minutes with a Frontier Model — moyix · 2026-10-21
- Dev finds Gemini Argon's debug-log analysis beats Fable 5.1 — ShikharMurty · 2026-10-21
- ChatGPT Gets Stuck Screaming "AAHH" in an Infinite Loop After a Simple Prompt — AutomaticScene · 2026-10-21
- Open-weights Ornith-1.5-122B debuts with 84.5% SWE-bench Verified, runs on a single DGX card — _akhaliq · 2026-10-21
- qev-0.8B: a tiny local decision model that picks moves in 3.5ms on 1.3GB — fajfas3 · 2026-10-21
- Gemini 3.1 Pro is too ledger-pilled to play two truths and a lie, and it's delightful — mimi10v3 · 2026-10-21