Hardware comparison
MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M4 Max (48GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 5060 (8GB) for local LLMs
How the two stack up for running open-source LLMs locally — memory, bandwidth, price, and how many of the 69 tracked models each one can run.
Scroll sideways to compare both machines. Keyboard: focus the table, then use the arrow keys. Metric names stay visible.
| Hardware | MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M4 Max (48GB) | NVIDIA RTX 5060 (8GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 48.0 GB (better for this comparison) | 8.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 546 GB/s (better for this comparison) | 448 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $3,199Complete system | $449GPU only · host PC required, sold separately |
| LLMs it runs | 54 of 69 (better for this comparison) | 23 of 69 |
| Best model it runs | Gemma 4 31BQ6_K · estimated 13–19 tok/s | Gemma 3 12BQ2_K · estimated 53–79 tok/s |
These prices cover different purchases: a GPU card excludes its required host PC; a complete system includes the machine. No price winner is marked. Prices are approximate catalog estimates; check current configurations and prices before buying.
The recommended models and quants differ. These estimated speeds are not a like-for-like comparison. Estimates use 4,096 context tokens, llama.cpp and one stream.
The MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M4 Max (48GB) runs 31 more of the tracked models (54 vs 23), thanks to its 48.0 GB of memory. The MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M4 Max (48GB) has more memory bandwidth (546 GB/s). Higher bandwidth can help generation speed, but model, quant, architecture and runtime also affect the estimates.