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Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

For running models locally, priced in the UK. At 128k context the first runs 4 models fully in memory, the second 5.

In short

Both have 16 GB of memory for models; the Mac mini M4 16GB has 120 GB/s of bandwidth and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB 448 GB/s. At 128k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB runs 5 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 4; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB holds LFM2.5 8B-A1B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is about 2.8× as fast as the Mac mini M4 16GB (estimated, median across models). In the UK the Mac mini M4 16GB costs £765 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB £520 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is £245 cheaper.

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

Mac mini M4 16GB

£765

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

£520

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecMac mini M4 16GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
ChipApple M4 (10-core GPU)–
Memory bus128-bit128-bit
Memory bandwidth120 GB/s448 GB/s
FP16 compute3.76 TFLOPS47 TFLOPS
SoftwareMetalCUDA
Unified memory16 GB–
GPU can use by default10.7 GB–
GPU can use, tuned10.666666666666666 GB–
Operating systemmacos–
ProcessorM4 10-core–
Storage256 GB–
GPU–GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
Memory–16 GB GDDR7
Board power–180 W
PCIe generation–Gen 5
PCIe lanes–x8

What each runs

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

ModelMac mini M4 16GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
Gemma 4 12B8tok/sQ4_K_M23tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.5 9B8tok/sQ4_K_M20tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B9tok/sQ8_032tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B8tok/sQ5_K_M23tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1Bwon't run23tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.8 27Bwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.6 27Bwon't runoffload
Gemma 4 31Bwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.5 27Bwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3Bwon't runoffload
Gemma 4 26B-A4Bwon't runoffload
Devstral Small 2 24Bwon't runoffload
GLM 4.7 Flashwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3Bwon't runoffload
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3Bwon't runoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3Bwon't runoffload
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3Bwon't runoffload
gpt-oss 20Bwon't runoffload
Gemma 3 27Bwon't runoffload
Mistral Small 3.2 24Bwon't runoffload
Ministral 3 14Bwon't runoffload
Qwen3 14Bwon't runoffload
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8Bwon't runoffload
Phi-4 14Bwon't runoffload
Qwen3 8Bwon't runoffload
Granite 4.2 8Bwon't runoffload
Ministral 3 8Bwon't runoffload
Llama 3.1 8Bwon'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
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Bwon't runwon't run
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runwon't run
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
Mistral Small 4 119Bwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.5 Airwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 32Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32Bwon't runwon't run
Llama 3.3 70Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
At 128k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB runs 5 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 4; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB holds LFM2.5 8B-A1B.
Which is faster for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is about 2.8× 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 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB?
In the UK the Mac mini M4 16GB costs £765 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB £520 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is £245 cheaper.

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