NVIDIA RTX 5090 vs Apple M4 Max (128GB)

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

54 models compared32 GB vs 128 GB VRAM1792 GB/s vs 546 GB/s$3,699 vs $3,999
GPU A

NVIDIA RTX 5090

VRAM
32 GB
Bandwidth
1792 GB/s
Street price
$3,699
Vendor
nvidia
GPU BRuns more models

Apple M4 Max (128GB)

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

The short answer

Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run 12 models that NVIDIA RTX 5090 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 B runs, A can't
33 models A 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.

ModelNVIDIA RTX 5090Apple M4 Max (128GB)Winner
c4ai-command-r-v01 35B
35B · command
53 tok/s · Q6_K7 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Command-R+ 104B
104B · command
Too large4 tok/s · Q8_0B (only)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B
8B · deepseek
92 tok/s · FP1628 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B
14.8B · deepseek
51 tok/s · FP1615 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B
70.6B · deepseek
Too large7 tok/s · Q8_0B (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
81 tok/s · FP1625 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
gemma-2-27b
27.2B · gemma
55 tok/s · Q8_08 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Llama 3.1 8B Compact
8B · llama
83 tok/s · FP1625 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
CodeLlama 34B
34B · llama
54 tok/s · Q6_K7 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
CodeLlama 34B
34B · llama
54 tok/s · Q6_K7 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Llama 3.3 70B
70.6B · llama
Too large7 tok/s · Q8_0B (only)
Llama 3.1 70B
70.6B · llama
Too large7 tok/s · Q8_0B (only)
Llama 4 Scout 17B
109B · llama
Too large5 tok/s · Q6_KB (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
102 tok/s · FP1631 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Codestral 22B
22.2B · mistral
66 tok/s · Q8_010 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1
47B · mixtral
Too large4 tok/s · FP16B (only)
Mistral Large 2 123B
123B · mistral
Too large5 tok/s · Q6_KB (only)
Phi-4-mini 3.8B
3.8B · phi
188 tok/s · FP1657 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Phi-4 14B
14B · phi
95 tok/s · Q8_014 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 2.5 1.5B
1.5B · qwen
437 tok/s · FP16133 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 2.5 3B
3.1B · qwen
228 tok/s · FP1669 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen3.5-4B
4.7B · qwen
154 tok/s · FP1647 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 2.5 7B
7.6B · qwen
97 tok/s · FP1630 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 2.5 7B
7.6B · qwen
97 tok/s · FP1630 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 3 8B
8B · qwen
83 tok/s · FP1625 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen3.5-9B
9.7B · qwen
77 tok/s · FP1623 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 3 32B
32B · qwen
51 tok/s · Q6_K6 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
36B · qwen
51 tok/s · Q6_K6 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 2.5 72B
72.7B · qwen
Too large6 tok/s · Q8_0B (only)
Qwen 2.5 72B
72.7B · qwen
Too large6 tok/s · Q8_0B (only)
Llama 3.2 1B
1.24B · llama
534 tok/s · FP16163 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Llama 4 Scout 17B
109B · llama
Too large5 tok/s · Q6_KB (only)
DeepSeek R1 671B
671B · deepseek
Too largeToo large
Gemma 3 27B
27B · gemma
60 tok/s · Q6_K7 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 3 8B
8B · qwen
83 tok/s · FP1625 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen 3 32B
32B · qwen
51 tok/s · Q6_K6 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Llama 3.1 8B Compact
8B · llama
83 tok/s · FP1625 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1
47B · mixtral
Too large4 tok/s · FP16B (only)
Mistral Small 3.2 24B
24B · mistral
65 tok/s · Q8_010 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Command A 111B
111B · command
Too large4 tok/s · Q8_0B (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
95 tok/s · FP1629 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
235B · qwen
Too largeToo large
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507
30B · qwen
52 tok/s · Q8_016 tok/s · Q8_0A (faster)
Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507
4B · qwen
195 tok/s · FP1659 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
gemma-4-E4B-it
8B · gemma
97 tok/s · FP1630 tok/s · FP16A (faster)
gemma-4-26B-A4B-it
26.5B · gemma
59 tok/s · Q8_018 tok/s · Q8_0A (faster)
gemma-4-31B-it
32.7B · gemma
59 tok/s · Q6_K15 tok/s · Q8_0A (faster)

Want a different pairing? Browse all comparisons →

Stay ahead of local AI