Hardware comparison
MacBook Air/Pro M5 (16GB) vs AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 “Strix Halo” (64GB) 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 Air/Pro M5 (16GB) | AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 “Strix Halo” (64GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 16.0 GB | 64.0 GB (better for this comparison) |
| Bandwidth | 153 GB/s | 256 GB/s (better for this comparison) |
| Price (approx) | $1,099 (better for this comparison)Complete system | $1,999Complete system |
| LLMs it runs | 30 of 69 | 57 of 69 (better for this comparison) |
| Best model it runs | Mistral Small 3.2 24BQ2_K · estimated 10–15 tok/s | Gemma 4 31BQ2_K · estimated 12–19 tok/s |
Both prices cover complete systems. Prices are approximate catalog estimates; check current configurations and prices before buying.
The recommended models differ. These estimated speeds are not a like-for-like comparison. Estimates use 4,096 context tokens, llama.cpp and one stream.
The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 “Strix Halo” (64GB) runs 27 more of the tracked models (57 vs 30), thanks to its 64.0 GB of memory. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 “Strix Halo” (64GB) has more memory bandwidth (256 GB/s). Higher bandwidth can help generation speed, but model, quant, architecture and runtime also affect the estimates.