Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
For running models locally, priced in Canada. At 128k context the first runs 11 models fully in memory, the second 11.
In short
The Mac mini M4 16GB has more memory for models: 16 GB against 12 GB. At 128k context both run the same 11 models we track fully in memory. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is about 5.3× as fast as the Mac mini M4 16GB (estimated, median across models). In Canada the Mac mini M4 16GB costs $1,399 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 $1,181 at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is $218 cheaper.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
Specifications
| Spec | Mac mini M4 16GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M4 (10-core GPU) | – |
| Memory bus | 128-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 672 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 3.76 TFLOPS | 62 TFLOPS |
| Software | Metal | CUDA |
| Unified memory | 16 GB | – |
| GPU can use by default | 10.7 GB | – |
| GPU can use, tuned | 10.666666666666666 GB | – |
| Operating system | macos | – |
| Processor | M4 10-core | – |
| Storage | 256 GB | – |
| GPU | – | GeForce RTX 5070 |
| Memory | – | 12 GB GDDR7 |
| Board power | – | 250 W |
| PCIe generation | – | Gen 5 |
| PCIe lanes | – | x16 |
What each runs
Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.
| Model | Mac mini M4 16GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 |
|---|---|---|
| Gemma 4 12B | 8tok/sQ4_K_M | 43tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | 8tok/sQ4_K_M | 42tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | 9tok/sQ8_0 | 47tok/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 45tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Qwen2.5 0.5B | 36tok/sQ8_0 | 195tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 0.8B | 32tok/sQ8_0 | 171tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 2B | 26tok/sQ5_K_M | 136tok/sQ5_K_M |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B | 14tok/sQ8_0 | 74tok/sQ8_0 |
| MiniCPM5 2B | 9tok/sQ8_0 | 50tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 2.6B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 41tok/sQ6_K |
| LFM2.5 VL 3B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 41tok/sQ6_K |
| Qwen 3.8 27B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | won't run | offload |
| Gemma 4 31B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 27B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B | won't run | offload |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | won't run | offload |
| Devstral Small 2 24B | won't run | offload |
| GLM 4.7 Flash | won't run | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B | won't run | offload |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B | won't run | offload |
| Kimi Linear 48B-A3B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B | won't run | offload |
| gpt-oss 20B | won't run | offload |
| Gemma 3 27B | won't run | offload |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | won't run | offload |
| Ministral 3 14B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen3 14B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B | won't run | offload |
| Phi-4 14B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen3 8B | won't run | offload |
| Granite 4.2 8B | won't run | offload |
| Ministral 3 8B | won't run | offload |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | won't run | offload |
| Llama 3.1 8B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B | won't run | offload |
| Devstral Small 2507 | won't run | offload |
| GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking | won't run | offload |
| GLM 4.6V Flash | won't run | offload |
| Kimi VL A3B | won't run | offload |
| LFM2.5 24B A2B | won't run | offload |
| Magistral Small 2506 | won't run | offload |
| Magistral Small 2507 | won't run | offload |
| Magistral Small 2509 | won't run | offload |
| Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking | won't run | offload |
| Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 2512 | won't run | offload |
| granite 4.2 3b | won't run | offload |
| granite vision 4.1 4b | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 5.3 Flash | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen 3.8 Flash Next | won't run | won't run |
| MiniMax M2.7 | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B | won't run | won't run |
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen3 Coder Next | won't run | won't run |
| gpt-oss 120B | won't run | won't run |
| Mistral Small 4 119B | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 4.5 Air | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen3 32B | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B | won't run | won't run |
| Llama 3.3 70B | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek R1 | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek V3 0324 | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek V3.1 | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp | won't run | won't run |
| Devstral 2 123B Instruct 2512 | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 4.5V | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 4.6V | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 4.7 | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 5.1 | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 5.2 | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 5.3 | won't run | won't run |
| Kimi K2 | won't run | won't run |
| Kimi K2 Instruct 0905 | won't run | won't run |
| Kimi K2 Thinking | won't run | won't run |
| Kimi K2.5 | won't run | won't run |
| MiniMax M2 | won't run | won't run |
| MiniMax M2.1 | won't run | won't run |
| MiniMax M2.5 | won't run | won't run |
| MiniMax M3 | won't run | won't run |
| Mistral Medium 3.5 128B | won't run | won't run |
| granite 4.2 30b | won't run | won't run |
Questions
- Which is better for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070?
- Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 to spend less.
- Which can run bigger models, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070?
- At 128k context both run the same 11 models we track fully in memory.
- Which is faster for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070?
- On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is about 5.3× as fast as the Mac mini M4 16GB (estimated, median across models).
- What is the price difference between the Mac mini M4 16GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070?
- In Canada the Mac mini M4 16GB costs $1,399 at Amazon and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 $1,181 at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is $218 cheaper.
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