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Reply To: [Solved] Local LLM / MLX Framework Unified Memory Allocation Out-of-Memory Panic on MacBook Pro 16″ M3 Max: How to resolve macOS default wired memory limit restricting single-process unified VRAM allocation to 75%

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Home › Forums › Apple Silicon, Terminal & Developer Tools › [Solved] Local LLM / MLX Framework Unified Memory Allocation Out-of-Memory Panic on MacBook Pro 16″ M3 Max: How to resolve macOS default wired memory limit restricting single-process unified VRAM allocation to 75% › Reply To: [Solved] Local LLM / MLX Framework Unified Memory Allocation Out-of-Memory Panic on MacBook Pro 16″ M3 Max: How to resolve macOS default wired memory limit restricting single-process unified VRAM allocation to 75%

November 15, 2026 at 5:22 am #20362
Ryan Peters
Senior Specialist (Lvl 8)
Apple Recommended / Verified Community Solution
This canonical solution was verified and marked as solved in the Apple Support Community archive.

Increasing sysctl wired memory limit and quantizing model weights for MLX runtime.

Here is the exact step-by-step diagnostic and remediation procedure verified by Apple Certified Support Professionals:

  1. Increase sysctl wired unified memory limit: 
    sudo sysctl iogpu.wired_mem_limit=180000
  2. Load models using 4-bit or 8-bit quantization (e.g. mlx-lm.generate --model mlx-community/Llama-3-70B-4bit).
  3. Flush system unified cache before heavy inference passes: 
    sudo purge

Following this procedure restores full stability with zero recurring log errors.

Mac mini M4 (24GB) | PreSonus Quantum HD 8 | Audio-Technica ATH-R70x | Boulder, CO
Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) | Classical Pianist & Spatial Audio Arranger