Mac mini M4 32GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
For running models locally, priced in Germany. At 64k context the first runs 42 models fully in memory, the second 22.
In short
The Mac mini M4 32GB has more memory for models: 32 GB against 12 GB. At 64k context the Mac mini M4 32GB runs 42 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 22; only the Mac mini M4 32GB holds Qwen 3.8 27B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is about 4.0× as fast as the Mac mini M4 32GB (estimated, median across models). In Germany the Mac mini M4 32GB costs 1.450 € at eBay (used) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 999 € at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is 451 € cheaper.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
Specifications
| Spec | Mac mini M4 32GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M4 (10-core GPU) | – |
| Memory bus | 128-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 504.2 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 3.76 TFLOPS | 29.146 TFLOPS |
| Software | Metal | CUDA |
| Unified memory | 32 GB | – |
| GPU can use by default | 21.3 GB | – |
| GPU can use, tuned | 24 GB | – |
| Operating system | macos | – |
| Processor | M4 10-core | – |
| Storage | 512 GB | – |
| GPU | – | GeForce RTX 4070 |
| Memory | – | 12 GB GDDR6X |
| Board power | – | 200 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 32GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.8 27B | 4tok/sUD-Q4_K_M | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | 4tok/sQ4_K_M | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 27B | 4tok/sQ4_K_M | offload |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | 10tok/sQ5_K_M | offload |
| gpt-oss 20B | 12tok/sMXFP4 | offload |
| Gemma 4 12B | 6tok/sQ8_0 | 32tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | 7tok/sQ8_0 | 32tok/sQ6_K |
| Ministral 3 14B | 4tok/sQ5_K_M | offload |
| Qwen3 14B | 4tok/sQ5_K_M | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B | 4tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Qwen3 8B | 4tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | 12tok/sQ8_0 | 47tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B | 4tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Granite 4.2 8B | 4tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 8tok/sQ8_0 | 31tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | 11tok/sQ8_0 | 46tok/sUD-Q6_K |
| Llama 3.1 8B | 5tok/sQ6_K | offload |
| Qwen2.5 0.5B | 58tok/sQ8_0 | 234tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 0.8B | 48tok/sQ8_0 | 191tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 2B | 35tok/sQ5_K_M | 138tok/sQ5_K_M |
| LFM3 1.7B | 29tok/sQ8_0 | 118tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B | 21tok/sQ8_0 | 83tok/sQ8_0 |
| MiniCPM5 2B | 14tok/sQ8_0 | 57tok/sQ8_0 |
| Spark X2.5 4B | 14tok/smlx-4bit | 57tok/smlx-4bit |
| Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking | 13tok/sQ8_0 | 62tok/sQ5_K_M |
| FrogNano 4B 2609 | 11tok/sQ8_0 | 46tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 2.6B | 11tok/sQ8_0 | 45tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 VL 3B | 11tok/sQ8_0 | 45tok/sQ8_0 |
| Kimi VL A3B Thinking 2506 | 9tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Kimi VL A3B | 9tok/smlx-8bit | offload |
| granite vision 4.1 4b | 9tok/sQ8_0 | 35tok/sQ8_0 |
| granite 4.2 3b | 8tok/sQ8_0 | 34tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 | 7tok/sQ8_0 | 29tok/sQ8_0 |
| GLM 4 9B 0414 | 7tok/smlx-5bit | 29tok/smlx-5bit |
| LFM2.5 24B A2B | 7tok/sQ4_K_M | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B | 7tok/sQ8_0 | 31tok/sQ6_K |
| GLM 4.6V Flash | 6tok/sQ8_0 | 35tok/sQ4_K_M |
| GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking | 5tok/smlx-8bit | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | 5tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 2512 | 4tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Ministral 3 14B Reasoning 2512 | 4tok/sQ5_K_M | offload |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 4tok/sQ5_K_M | offload |
| Gemma 4 31B | 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 |
| Phi-4 14B | won't run | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B | 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 |
| Qwen3.8 27B OBLITERATED | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 R1 Zero | won't run | won't run |
| DeepSeek V3 | 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 V3.1 Terminus | 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 4.5 | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 4.5V | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 4.6 | 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 | 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 Dev 72B | 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 32GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070?
- Choose the Mac mini M4 32GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 to spend less.
- Which can run bigger models, the Mac mini M4 32GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070?
- At 64k context the Mac mini M4 32GB runs 42 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 22; only the Mac mini M4 32GB holds Qwen 3.8 27B.
- Which is faster for local AI, the Mac mini M4 32GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070?
- On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is about 4.0× as fast as the Mac mini M4 32GB (estimated, median across models).
- What is the price difference between the Mac mini M4 32GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070?
- In Germany the Mac mini M4 32GB costs 1.450 € at eBay (used) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 999 € at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is 451 € cheaper.
More comparisons
- Intel Arc B580 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
- Intel Arc Pro B60 vs Mac mini M4 32GB
- Intel Arc Pro B60 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
- Intel Arc Pro B70 vs Mac mini M4 32GB
- Framework Desktop Ryzen AI Max+ 395 64GB vs Mac mini M4 32GB
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs Mac mini M4 32GB
- Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
- Mac mini M4 32GB vs Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB
- Mac mini M4 32GB vs Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB
- Mac mini M4 32GB vs Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB