Hardware comparison
MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (128GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 3060 (12GB) 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 M5 Max (128GB) | NVIDIA RTX 3060 (12GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 128.0 GB (better for this comparison) | 12.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 614 GB/s (better for this comparison) | 360 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $5,099Complete system | $329GPU only · host PC required, sold separately |
| LLMs it runs | 62 of 69 (better for this comparison) | 30 of 69 |
| Best model it runs | Gemma 4 31BQ6_K · estimated 14–22 tok/s | Mistral Small 3.2 24BQ2_K · estimated 26–39 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 M5 Max (128GB) runs 32 more of the tracked models (62 vs 30), thanks to its 128.0 GB of memory. The MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (128GB) has more memory bandwidth (614 GB/s). Higher bandwidth can help generation speed, but model, quant, architecture and runtime also affect the estimates.