Mac mini M4 16GB vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
For running models locally, priced in Canada. At 32k context the first runs 22 models fully in memory, the second 36.
In short
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has more memory for models: 20 GB against 16 GB. At 32k context the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT runs 36 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 22; only the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT holds Qwen 3.8 27B. On the models both run fully in memory, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is about 5.6× 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 AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT $2,083 at Amazon: the Mac mini M4 16GB is $684 cheaper.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
Specifications
| Spec | Mac mini M4 16GB | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M4 (10-core GPU) | – |
| Memory bus | 128-bit | 320-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 800 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 3.76 TFLOPS | 103 TFLOPS |
| Software | Metal | ROCm |
| 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 | – | Radeon RX 7900 XT |
| Memory | – | 20 GB GDDR6 |
| Board power | – | 315 W |
| PCIe generation | – | Gen 4 |
| PCIe lanes | – | x16 |
What each runs
Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.
| Model | Mac mini M4 16GB | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.8 27B | won't run | 24tok/sUD-Q4_K_M |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | won't run | 23tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Qwen 3.5 27B | won't run | 23tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | won't run | 75tok/sQ4_K_M |
| gpt-oss 20B | won't run | 82tok/sMXFP4 |
| Gemma 4 12B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 33tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | 9tok/sQ6_K | 41tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 14B | won't run | 27tok/sQ6_K |
| Qwen3 14B | won't run | 25tok/sQ6_K |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B | 8tok/sQ4_K_M | 33tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3 8B | 8tok/sQ4_K_M | 33tok/sQ8_0 |
| Phi-4 14B | won't run | 24tok/sQ6_K |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | 14tok/sQ8_0 | 79tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B | 7tok/sQ5_K_M | 32tok/sQ8_0 |
| Granite 4.2 8B | won't run | 30tok/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 9tok/sQ8_0 | 48tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | 18tok/sQ8_0 | 99tok/sQ8_0 |
| Llama 3.1 8B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 40tok/sQ6_K |
| Qwen2.5 0.5B | 84tok/sQ8_0 | 471tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 0.8B | 63tok/sQ8_0 | 357tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 2B | 42tok/sQ5_K_M | 237tok/sQ5_K_M |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B | 28tok/sQ8_0 | 155tok/sQ8_0 |
| MiniCPM5 2B | 19tok/sQ8_0 | 108tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 2.6B | 16tok/sQ8_0 | 90tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 VL 3B | 16tok/sQ8_0 | 90tok/sQ8_0 |
| granite vision 4.1 4b | 12tok/sQ8_0 | 70tok/sQ8_0 |
| granite 4.2 3b | 12tok/sQ8_0 | 67tok/sQ8_0 |
| GLM 4.6V Flash | 10tok/sQ4_K_M | 39tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 34tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B | 8tok/sQ8_0 | 44tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 2512 | 7tok/sQ5_K_M | 32tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B | won't run | 24tok/sQ6_K |
| GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking | won't run | 34tok/smlx-8bit |
| Kimi VL A3B | won't run | 62tok/smlx-8bit |
| LFM2.5 24B A2B | won't run | 67tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking | won't run | 83tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B | won't run | offload |
| Gemma 4 31B | won't run | offload |
| Mistral Small 4 119B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B | 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 |
| Qwen3 32B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B | won't run | offload |
| Gemma 3 27B | won't run | offload |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | won't run | offload |
| Devstral Small 2507 | 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 |
| granite 4.2 30b | 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 |
| 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 |
| GLM 4.5 Air | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B | 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 |
Questions
- Which is better for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT?
- Choose the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT to run bigger models. Choose the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT for speed. Choose the Mac mini M4 16GB to spend less.
- Which can run bigger models, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT?
- At 32k context the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT runs 36 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 22; only the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT holds Qwen 3.8 27B.
- Which is faster for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT?
- On the models both run fully in memory, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is about 5.6× 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 AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT?
- In Canada the Mac mini M4 16GB costs $1,399 at Amazon and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT $2,083 at Amazon: the Mac mini M4 16GB is $684 cheaper.
More comparisons
- Intel Arc Pro B60 vs Mac mini M4 16GB
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs Mac mini M4 32GB
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT