Apple M4 Max (128GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB

How these GPUs compare for running local LLMs — VRAM, bandwidth, price, and per-model fit across popular open-weights models.

54 models compared128 GB vs 12 GB VRAM546 GB/s vs 360 GB/s$3,999 vs $339
GPU ARuns more models

Apple M4 Max (128GB)

VRAM
128 GB
Bandwidth
546 GB/s
Street price
$3,999
Vendor
apple
GPU B

NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB

VRAM
12 GB
Bandwidth
360 GB/s
Street price
$339
Vendor
nvidia

The short answer

Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run 25 models that NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GB can't fit in VRAM — mostly the larger models. For the 20 models both can handle, speeds are similar. If you want headroom for bigger models, Apple M4 Max (128GB) is the clear choice.

25 models A runs, B can't
6 models A is 20%+ faster
14 models B is 20%+ faster
0 equal (both run, <20% diff)
9 too large for either

Model-by-model fit

Click any row for the full breakdown. Tie% shown in the Winner column when both GPUs run the model within 20% of each other.

ModelApple M4 Max (128GB)NVIDIA RTX 3060 12GBWinner
c4ai-command-r-v01 35B
35B · command
7 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Command-R+ 104B
104B · command
4 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B
8B · deepseek
28 tok/s · FP1636 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B
14.8B · deepseek
15 tok/s · FP1635 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B
70.6B · deepseek
7 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
DeepSeek R1 671B
671B · deepseek
Too largeToo large
DeepSeek-V3 685B
685B · deepseek
Too largeToo large
DeepSeek-V3.2 685.4B
685.4B · deepseek
Too largeToo large
gemma-2-9b
9.2B · gemma
25 tok/s · FP1632 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
gemma-2-27b
27.2B · gemma
8 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Llama 3.1 8B Compact
8B · llama
25 tok/s · FP1633 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
CodeLlama 34B
34B · llama
7 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
CodeLlama 34B
34B · llama
7 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Llama 3.3 70B
70.6B · llama
7 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
Llama 3.1 70B
70.6B · llama
7 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
Llama 4 Scout 17B
109B · llama
5 tok/s · Q6_KToo largeA (only)
Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E
400B · llama
Too largeToo large
Llama 3.1 405B
405B · llama
Too largeToo large
Mistral 7B v0.1
7.25B · mistral
31 tok/s · FP1640 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Codestral 22B
22.2B · mistral
10 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1
47B · mixtral
4 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Mistral Large 2 123B
123B · mistral
5 tok/s · Q6_KToo largeA (only)
Phi-4-mini 3.8B
3.8B · phi
57 tok/s · FP1638 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Phi-4 14B
14B · phi
14 tok/s · FP1628 tok/s · Q5_K_MB (faster)
Qwen 2.5 1.5B
1.5B · qwen
133 tok/s · FP1688 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 2.5 3B
3.1B · qwen
69 tok/s · FP1646 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen3.5-4B
4.7B · qwen
47 tok/s · FP1631 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 2.5 7B
7.6B · qwen
30 tok/s · FP1638 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Qwen 2.5 7B
7.6B · qwen
30 tok/s · FP1638 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Qwen 3 8B
8B · qwen
25 tok/s · FP1633 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Qwen3.5-9B
9.7B · qwen
23 tok/s · FP1630 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Qwen 3 32B
32B · qwen
6 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
36B · qwen
6 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Qwen 2.5 72B
72.7B · qwen
6 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
Qwen 2.5 72B
72.7B · qwen
6 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
Llama 3.2 1B
1.24B · llama
163 tok/s · FP16107 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Llama 4 Scout 17B
109B · llama
5 tok/s · Q6_KToo largeA (only)
DeepSeek R1 671B
671B · deepseek
Too largeToo large
Gemma 3 27B
27B · gemma
7 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Qwen 3 8B
8B · qwen
25 tok/s · FP1633 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Qwen 3 32B
32B · qwen
6 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Llama 3.1 8B Compact
8B · llama
25 tok/s · FP1633 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1
47B · mixtral
4 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Mistral Small 3.2 24B
24B · mistral
10 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Command A 111B
111B · command
4 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
DeepSeek R1 0528
685B · deepseek
Too largeToo large
DeepSeek-V3-0324
684.5B · deepseek
Too largeToo large
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B
8.2B · qwen
29 tok/s · FP1638 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
235B · qwen
Too largeToo large
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507
30B · qwen
16 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507
4B · qwen
59 tok/s · FP1639 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
gemma-4-E4B-it
8B · gemma
30 tok/s · FP1639 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
gemma-4-26B-A4B-it
26.5B · gemma
18 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
gemma-4-31B-it
32.7B · gemma
15 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)

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