readygpu

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB vs NVIDIA RTX A6000

For running models locally, priced in Germany. At 32k context the first runs 72 models fully in memory, the second 65.

In short

The Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB has more memory for models: 96 GB against 48 GB. At 32k context the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB runs 72 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 65; only the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB holds gpt-oss 120B. On the models both run fully in memory, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB is about 1.1× as fast as the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (estimated, median across models). In Germany the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB costs 5.999 € at eBay and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 5.549 € at eBay: the NVIDIA RTX A6000 is 450 € cheaper.

Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB

5.999 €

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA RTX A6000

5.549 €

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecMac Studio M3 Ultra 96GBNVIDIA RTX A6000
ChipApple M3 Ultra (80-core GPU)–
Memory bus1024-bit384-bit
Memory bandwidth819 GB/s768 GB/s
FP16 compute28 TFLOPS38.71 TFLOPS
SoftwareMetalCUDA
Unified memory96 GB–
GPU can use by default72 GB–
GPU can use, tuned88 GB–
Operating systemmacos–
ProcessorM3 Ultra 32-core–
Storage1000 GB–
GPU–RTX A6000
Memory–48 GB GDDR6
Board power–300 W
PCIe generation–Gen 4
PCIe lanes–x16

What each runs

Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.

ModelMac Studio M3 Ultra 96GBNVIDIA RTX A6000
Qwen 3.8 27B17tok/sQ8_015tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B58tok/sQ3_K_M66tok/sUD-Q2_K_XL
Qwen 3.6 27B17tok/sQ8_015tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 Coder Next78tok/sQ6_K88tok/sQ4_K_M
gpt-oss 120B74tok/sMXFP4offload
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B50tok/sUD-Q3_K_Moffload
Gemma 4 31B15tok/sQ8_013tok/sQ8_0
Mistral Small 4 119B62tok/sUD-Q4_K_M91tok/sUD-Q2_K_XL
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B84tok/sQ8_075tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 27B17tok/sQ8_015tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 26B-A4B63tok/sQ8_057tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.5 Air24tok/sQ3_K_Moffload
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B97tok/sQ6_K107tok/sQ4_K_M
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B84tok/sQ8_075tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.7 Flash45tok/sQ8_041tok/sQ8_0
Devstral Small 2 24B18tok/sQ8_016tok/sQ8_0
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B89tok/sUD-Q6_K_XL80tok/sUD-Q6_K_XL
gpt-oss 20B99tok/sMXFP488tok/sMXFP4
Kimi Linear 48B-A3B91tok/sQ8_0103tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B50tok/sQ8_045tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 32B12tok/sQ8_011tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 12B39tok/sQ8_035tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B50tok/sQ8_045tok/sQ8_0
Mistral Small 3.2 24B18tok/sQ8_016tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 3 27B17tok/sQ8_015tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B12tok/sQ8_011tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.3 70B9tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
Ministral 3 14B27tok/sQ8_024tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 14B25tok/sQ8_023tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B39tok/sQ8_035tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8B39tok/sQ8_035tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14B24tok/sQ8_021tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B95tok/sQ8_085tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B39tok/sQ8_035tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8B36tok/sQ8_032tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B58tok/sQ8_052tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B119tok/sQ8_0107tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B49tok/sQ6_K44tok/sQ6_K
Qwen2.5 0.5B570tok/sQ8_0510tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 0.8B432tok/sQ8_0386tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 2B287tok/sQ5_K_M256tok/sQ5_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B188tok/sQ8_0168tok/sQ8_0
MiniCPM5 2B130tok/sQ8_0116tok/sQ8_0
Spark X2.5 4B124tok/smlx-4bit111tok/smlx-4bit
LFM2.5 2.6B109tok/sQ8_097tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 VL 3B109tok/sQ8_097tok/sQ8_0
Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking101tok/sQ8_090tok/sQ8_0
FrogNano 4B 260993tok/sQ8_083tok/sQ8_0
granite vision 4.1 4b84tok/sQ8_076tok/sQ8_0
granite 4.2 3b81tok/sQ8_072tok/sQ8_0
Kimi VL A3B Thinking 250678tok/sQ8_069tok/sQ8_0
Kimi VL A3B75tok/smlx-8bit67tok/smlx-8bit
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 251275tok/sQ8_067tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 24B A2B66tok/sQ8_059tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4 9B 041456tok/smlx-5bit50tok/smlx-5bit
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B53tok/sQ8_048tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.6V Flash47tok/sQ8_042tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B42tok/sQ8_037tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking41tok/smlx-8bit36tok/smlx-8bit
Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 251239tok/sQ8_035tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 14B Reasoning 251227tok/sQ8_024tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B24tok/sQ8_022tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.8 27B OBLITERATED23tok/smlx-4bit21tok/smlx-4bit
GLM 4.5V22tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Devstral Small 250718tok/sQ8_016tok/sQ8_0
Magistral Small 250618tok/sQ8_016tok/sQ8_0
Magistral Small 250718tok/sQ8_016tok/sQ8_0
Magistral Small 250918tok/sQ8_016tok/sQ8_0
Muse Glimmer 30B16tok/sQ8_015tok/sQ8_0
granite 4.2 30b13tok/sQ8_012tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B9tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
Kimi Dev 72B7tok/sQ6_Koffload
GLM 4.6Vwon't runoffload
DeepSeek V4 Flashwon't runwon't run
GLM 5.3 Flashwon't runwon't run
Qwen 3.8 Flash Nextwon't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.7won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 0528won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Zerowon't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3 0324won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminuswon't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.2won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Expwon't runwon't run
Devstral 2 123B Instruct 2512won't runwon't run
GLM 4.5won't runwon't run
GLM 4.6won't runwon't run
GLM 4.7won't runwon't run
GLM 5won't runwon't run
GLM 5.1won't runwon't run
GLM 5.2won't runwon't run
GLM 5.3won't runwon't run
Kimi K2won't runwon't run
Kimi K2 Instruct 0905won't runwon't run
Kimi K2 Thinkingwon't runwon't run
Kimi K2.5won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.1won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.5won't runwon't run
MiniMax M3won't runwon't run
Mistral Medium 3.5 128Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA RTX A6000?
Choose the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB to run bigger models. Choose the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB for speed. Choose the NVIDIA RTX A6000 to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA RTX A6000?
At 32k context the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB runs 72 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 65; only the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB holds gpt-oss 120B.
Which is faster for local AI, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA RTX A6000?
On the models both run fully in memory, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB is about 1.1× as fast as the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (estimated, median across models).
What is the price difference between the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB and the NVIDIA RTX A6000?
In Germany the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB costs 5.999 € at eBay and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 5.549 € at eBay: the NVIDIA RTX A6000 is 450 € cheaper.

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