Hardware comparison
MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) vs AMD RX 7900 XTX (24GB) 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 (36GB) | AMD RX 7900 XTX (24GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 36.0 GB (better for this comparison) | 24.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 460 GB/s | 960 GB/s (better for this comparison) |
| Price (approx) | $2,499Complete system | $949GPU only · host PC required, sold separately |
| LLMs it runs | 51 of 69 | 51 of 69 |
| Best model it runs | Gemma 4 31BQ4_K_M · estimated 15–22 tok/s | Gemma 4 31BQ3_K_M · estimated 40–60 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 quants differ. These estimated speeds are not a like-for-like comparison. Estimates use 4,096 context tokens, llama.cpp and one stream.
Both run the same number of models, but the MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) has more memory (36.0 GB), so it can hold larger models at higher quality. The AMD RX 7900 XTX (24GB) has more memory bandwidth (960 GB/s). Higher bandwidth can help generation speed, but model, quant, architecture and runtime also affect the estimates.