Mac mini M4 16GB vs AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
For running models locally, priced in Canada. At 32k context the first runs 22 models fully in memory, the second 29.
In short
Both have 16 GB of memory for models; the Mac mini M4 16GB has 120 GB/s of bandwidth and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 640 GB/s. At 32k context the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT runs 29 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 22; only the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT holds gpt-oss 20B. On the models both run fully in memory, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is about 4.5× 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 9070 XT $1,050 at Amazon: the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is $349 cheaper.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
Specifications
| Spec | Mac mini M4 16GB | AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M4 (10-core GPU) | – |
| Memory bus | 128-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 640 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 3.76 TFLOPS | 195 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 9070 XT |
| Memory | – | 16 GB GDDR6 |
| Board power | – | 304 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 | AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT |
|---|---|---|
| gpt-oss 20B | won't run | 65tok/sMXFP4 |
| Gemma 4 12B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 26tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | 9tok/sQ6_K | 33tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 14B | won't run | 24tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Qwen3 14B | won't run | 25tok/sQ4_K_M |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B | 8tok/sQ4_K_M | 26tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3 8B | 8tok/sQ4_K_M | 26tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | 14tok/sQ8_0 | 63tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B | 7tok/sQ5_K_M | 26tok/sQ8_0 |
| Granite 4.2 8B | won't run | 24tok/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 9tok/sQ8_0 | 38tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | 18tok/sQ8_0 | 79tok/sQ8_0 |
| Llama 3.1 8B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 32tok/sQ6_K |
| Qwen2.5 0.5B | 84tok/sQ8_0 | 377tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 0.8B | 63tok/sQ8_0 | 285tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 2B | 42tok/sQ5_K_M | 190tok/sQ5_K_M |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B | 28tok/sQ8_0 | 124tok/sQ8_0 |
| MiniCPM5 2B | 19tok/sQ8_0 | 86tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 2.6B | 16tok/sQ8_0 | 72tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 VL 3B | 16tok/sQ8_0 | 72tok/sQ8_0 |
| granite vision 4.1 4b | 12tok/sQ8_0 | 56tok/sQ8_0 |
| granite 4.2 3b | 12tok/sQ8_0 | 54tok/sQ8_0 |
| GLM 4.6V Flash | 10tok/sQ4_K_M | 31tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | 8tok/sQ5_K_M | 27tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B | 8tok/sQ8_0 | 35tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 2512 | 7tok/sQ5_K_M | 26tok/sQ8_0 |
| GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking | won't run | 27tok/smlx-8bit |
| Kimi VL A3B | won't run | 60tok/smlx-6bit |
| Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking | won't run | 67tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.8 27B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B | won't run | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | won't run | offload |
| Gemma 4 31B | won't run | offload |
| Mistral Small 4 119B | 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 |
| 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 |
| Phi-4 14B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B | won't run | offload |
| Devstral Small 2507 | 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 |
| 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 9070 XT?
- Choose the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT to run bigger models. Choose the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT for speed. Choose the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT to spend less.
- Which can run bigger models, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT?
- At 32k context the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT runs 29 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 22; only the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT holds gpt-oss 20B.
- Which is faster for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT?
- On the models both run fully in memory, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is about 4.5× 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 9070 XT?
- In Canada the Mac mini M4 16GB costs $1,399 at Amazon and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT $1,050 at Amazon: the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is $349 cheaper.
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