Apple M4 Max (128GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 4090

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 24 GB VRAM546 GB/s vs 1008 GB/s$3,999 vs $1,999
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 4090

VRAM
24 GB
Bandwidth
1008 GB/s
Street price
$1,999
Vendor
nvidia

The short answer

Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run 12 models that NVIDIA RTX 4090 can't fit in VRAM — mostly the larger models. For the 33 models both can handle, speeds are similar. If you want headroom for bigger models, Apple M4 Max (128GB) is the clear choice.

12 models A runs, B can't
33 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 4090Winner
c4ai-command-r-v01 35B
35B · command
7 tok/s · FP1642 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
Command-R+ 104B
104B · command
4 tok/s · Q8_0Too largeA (only)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B
8B · deepseek
28 tok/s · FP1652 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B
14.8B · deepseek
15 tok/s · FP1656 tok/s · Q8_0B (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 · FP1645 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
gemma-2-27b
27.2B · gemma
8 tok/s · FP1638 tok/s · Q6_KB (faster)
Llama 3.1 8B Compact
8B · llama
25 tok/s · FP1647 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
CodeLlama 34B
34B · llama
7 tok/s · FP1644 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
CodeLlama 34B
34B · llama
7 tok/s · FP1644 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
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 · FP1657 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Codestral 22B
22.2B · mistral
10 tok/s · FP1646 tok/s · Q6_KB (faster)
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 · FP16106 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Phi-4 14B
14B · phi
14 tok/s · FP1653 tok/s · Q8_0B (faster)
Qwen 2.5 1.5B
1.5B · qwen
133 tok/s · FP16246 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen 2.5 3B
3.1B · qwen
69 tok/s · FP16128 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen3.5-4B
4.7B · qwen
47 tok/s · FP1687 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen 2.5 7B
7.6B · qwen
30 tok/s · FP1655 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen 2.5 7B
7.6B · qwen
30 tok/s · FP1655 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen 3 8B
8B · qwen
25 tok/s · FP1647 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen3.5-9B
9.7B · qwen
23 tok/s · FP1643 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen 3 32B
32B · qwen
6 tok/s · FP1641 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
36B · qwen
6 tok/s · FP1641 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
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 · FP16300 tok/s · FP16B (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 · FP1640 tok/s · Q5_K_MB (faster)
Qwen 3 8B
8B · qwen
25 tok/s · FP1647 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen 3 32B
32B · qwen
6 tok/s · FP1641 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
Llama 3.1 8B Compact
8B · llama
25 tok/s · FP1647 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1
47B · mixtral
4 tok/s · FP16Too largeA (only)
Mistral Small 3.2 24B
24B · mistral
10 tok/s · FP1645 tok/s · Q6_KB (faster)
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 · FP1653 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
235B · qwen
Too largeToo large
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507
30B · qwen
16 tok/s · Q8_052 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)
Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507
4B · qwen
59 tok/s · FP16110 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
gemma-4-E4B-it
8B · gemma
30 tok/s · FP1655 tok/s · FP16B (faster)
gemma-4-26B-A4B-it
26.5B · gemma
18 tok/s · Q8_041 tok/s · Q6_KB (faster)
gemma-4-31B-it
32.7B · gemma
15 tok/s · Q8_048 tok/s · Q4_K_MB (faster)

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