Best Macs and mini PCs for local AI
Ranked by what each one runs fully in memory at 32k context, with prices in the UK today.
In short
The top pick in the UK right now is the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB, £5,499 at eBay: it runs Qwen 3.8 27B fully in memory at 32k context at about 17 tok/s (estimated). Ranked by the most capable open model each one runs fully in memory at 32k context and a usable speed, then by how many models it runs, then by speed on Qwen 3.8 27B, then by price.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
The list
Best first. Speeds are estimates est.
| # | Machine | Memory | Price | Best model it runs at 32k | Models in memory | Qwen 3.8 27B | tok/s per £1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB | 96 GB | £5,499eBay | Qwen 3.8 27BQ8_017 tok/s | 34 | 17 tok/s | 3.1 |
| 2 | Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB | 64 GB | £3,399eBay | Qwen 3.5 122B-A10BUD-Q2_K_XL50 tok/s | 25 | 11 tok/s | 3.3 |
| 3 | GMKtec EVO-X2 Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB | 128 GB | £3,320eBay | gpt-oss 120BMXFP420 tok/s | 12 | 5 tok/s | 1.4 |
| 4 | Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB | 48 GB | £3,000eBay | Qwen 3.6 35B-A3BQ8_028 tok/s | 13 | 6 tok/s | 1.9 |
| 5 | Mac mini M4 16GB | 16 GB | £765eBay | LFM2.5 8B-A1BQ8_018 tok/s | 1 | won't run | – |
Questions
- What is the best Mac or mini PC for running AI models locally?
- The top pick in the UK right now is the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB, £5,499 at eBay: it runs Qwen 3.8 27B fully in memory at 32k context at about 17 tok/s (estimated).
- Which gives the most speed for the money?
- The Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB: about 11 tok/s on Qwen 3.8 27B for £3,399, the most tokens per second per unit of price on this list (estimated).
- What is the cheapest option here that runs Qwen 3.8 27B fully in memory?
- The Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB, £3,000 at eBay, at about 6 tok/s at 32k context (estimated).