Every MacBook Air generation, with the memory bandwidth and unified memory that decide which models it can run. Pick a chip for its full model fit breakdown.
The M5 is the current generation at 153 GB/s and up to 32 GB. On the used market the M4 is the one to look for: 120 GB/s and up to 32 GB, which is the pairing that decides what runs, and neither figure changes with the age of the machine.
153 GB/s · 16 to 32 GB unified memory
Holds about a 42B model at Q4
120 GB/s · 16 to 32 GB unified memory
Holds about a 42B model at Q4 · Used market
100 GB/s · 8 to 24 GB unified memory
Holds about a 31B model at Q4 · Used market
100 GB/s · 8 to 24 GB unified memory
Holds about a 31B model at Q4 · Used market
68.25 GB/s · 8 to 16 GB unified memory
Holds about a 20B model at Q4 · Used market
Apple has not announced any of this. The M7 Max and Ultra are the first parts Apple designed after cancelling a generation to reach them, so extrapolating from the M5 under-represents them. These rows assume LPDDR6, whose wider channels grow every bus by half, at its top speed bin by the time the Max and Ultra ship. The 1.5 TB Ultra ceiling is Bloomberg's reported design target, and whether that configuration ships depends on the memory market. Stacked memory or a new package fabric would land above these numbers; nobody outside Apple can price that yet.
Shipping chip, not yet in this Mac · expected 2026
153 to 170 GB/s · 16 to 32 GB unified memory
12-core CPU · 12-core GPU · 76 TOPS Neural Engine
Would hold about a 42B model at Q4
Projected chip · expected 2027
240 GB/s · 16 to 48 GB unified memory
12-core CPU · 12 or 16-core GPU · 76 TOPS Neural Engine
Would hold about a 63B model at Q4
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