Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
For running models locally, priced in Germany. At 128k context the first runs 56 models fully in memory, the second 28.
In short
The Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB has more memory for models: 64 GB against 24 GB. At 128k context the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB runs 56 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 28; only the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB holds Qwen 3.8 27B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is about 1.8× as fast as the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB (estimated, median across models). In Germany the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB costs 4.000 € at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 2.790 € at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is 1.210 € cheaper.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
Specifications
| Spec | Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) | – |
| Memory bus | 512-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 546 GB/s | 1,008 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 16.16 TFLOPS | 80 TFLOPS |
| Software | Metal | CUDA |
| Unified memory | 64 GB | – |
| GPU can use by default | 48 GB | – |
| GPU can use, tuned | 56 GB | – |
| Operating system | macos | – |
| Processor | M4 Max 16-core | – |
| Storage | 1000 GB | – |
| GPU | – | GeForce RTX 3090 Ti |
| Memory | – | 24 GB GDDR6X |
| Board power | – | 450 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 Studio M4 Max 64GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.8 27B | 9tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B | 32tok/sUD-Q2_K_XL | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | 10tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Gemma 4 31B | 8tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Mistral Small 4 119B | 40tok/sUD-Q2_K_XL | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B | 37tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 27B | 10tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | 30tok/sQ8_0 | 64tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B | 37tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| GLM 4.7 Flash | 17tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Devstral Small 2 24B | 8tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B | 51tok/sUD-Q6_K_XL | offload |
| Kimi Linear 48B-A3B | 60tok/sQ6_K | offload |
| gpt-oss 20B | 38tok/sMXFP4 | 66tok/sMXFP4 |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B | 13tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Gemma 4 12B | 23tok/sQ8_0 | 41tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | 26tok/sQ8_0 | 45tok/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 3 27B | 9tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | 8tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Ministral 3 14B | 10tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Qwen3 14B | 10tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B | 13tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Qwen3 8B | 13tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Phi-4 14B | 8tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | 40tok/sQ8_0 | 71tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B | 13tok/sQ8_0 | 27tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Granite 4.2 8B | 12tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 30tok/sQ8_0 | 52tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | 28tok/sQ8_0 | 50tok/sQ8_0 |
| Llama 3.1 8B | 15tok/sQ6_K | 27tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Qwen2.5 0.5B | 166tok/sQ8_0 | 292tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 0.8B | 145tok/sQ8_0 | 256tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.5 2B | 116tok/sQ5_K_M | 204tok/sQ5_K_M |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B | 63tok/sQ8_0 | 111tok/sQ8_0 |
| Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking | 47tok/sQ8_0 | 82tok/sQ8_0 |
| Spark X2.5 4B | 45tok/smlx-4bit | 79tok/smlx-4bit |
| MiniCPM5 2B | 43tok/sQ8_0 | 75tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 2.6B | 33tok/sQ8_0 | 57tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 VL 3B | 33tok/sQ8_0 | 57tok/sQ8_0 |
| Kimi VL A3B Thinking 2506 | 30tok/sQ8_0 | 52tok/sQ8_0 |
| Kimi VL A3B | 29tok/smlx-8bit | 51tok/smlx-8bit |
| GLM 4 9B 0414 | 26tok/smlx-5bit | 46tok/smlx-5bit |
| granite vision 4.1 4b | 25tok/sQ8_0 | 44tok/sQ8_0 |
| granite 4.2 3b | 24tok/sQ8_0 | 43tok/sQ8_0 |
| GLM 4.6V Flash | 23tok/sQ8_0 | 41tok/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B | 23tok/sQ8_0 | 40tok/sQ8_0 |
| GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking | 21tok/smlx-8bit | 37tok/smlx-8bit |
| LFM2.5 24B A2B | 17tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | 14tok/sQ8_0 | 27tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 2512 | 13tok/sQ8_0 | 27tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Qwen3.8 27B OBLITERATED | 12tok/smlx-4bit | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B | 9tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Devstral Small 2507 | 8tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Magistral Small 2506 | 8tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Magistral Small 2507 | 8tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Magistral Small 2509 | 8tok/sQ8_0 | 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 |
| 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 R1 Zero | 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 4.5V | 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 5.1 | 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 |
| granite 4.2 30b | won't run | won't run |
Questions
- Which is better for local AI, the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti?
- Choose the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti to spend less.
- Which can run bigger models, the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti?
- At 128k context the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB runs 56 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 28; only the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB holds Qwen 3.8 27B.
- Which is faster for local AI, the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti?
- On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is about 1.8× as fast as the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB (estimated, median across models).
- What is the price difference between the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti?
- In Germany the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB costs 4.000 € at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 2.790 € at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is 1.210 € cheaper.
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