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Mac mini M4 16GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

For running models locally, priced in the UK. At 8k context the first runs 13 models fully in memory, the second 16.

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 5080 960 GB/s. At 8k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 runs 16 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 13; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 holds Devstral Small 2 24B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is about 7.6× 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 5080 £1,199 at eBay: the Mac mini M4 16GB is £434 cheaper.

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

Mac mini M4 16GB

£765

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

£1,199

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecMac mini M4 16GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
ChipApple M4 (10-core GPU)–
Memory bus128-bit256-bit
Memory bandwidth120 GB/s960 GB/s
FP16 compute3.76 TFLOPS113 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 5080
Memory–16 GB GDDR7
Board power–360 W
PCIe generation–Gen 5
PCIe lanes–x16

What each runs

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

ModelMac mini M4 16GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
Devstral Small 2 24Bwon't run38tok/sQ4_K_M
gpt-oss 20Bwon't run136tok/sMXFP4
Gemma 4 12B8tok/sQ6_K45tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B8tok/sQ8_060tok/sQ8_0
Mistral Small 3.2 24Bwon't run38tok/sQ4_K_M
Ministral 3 14B8tok/sQ4_K_M38tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 14B8tok/sQ4_K_M44tok/sQ6_K
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B8tok/sQ8_060tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8B8tok/sQ8_060tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14B7tok/sQ4_K_M43tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.5 4B16tok/sQ8_0124tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B8tok/sQ8_059tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8B7tok/sQ8_056tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B9tok/sQ8_070tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B32tok/sQ8_0244tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B10tok/sQ6_K78tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.8 27Bwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Bwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.6 27Bwon't runoffload
Gemma 4 31Bwon't runoffload
Mistral Small 4 119Bwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.5 27Bwon't runoffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3Bwon't runoffload
Gemma 4 26B-A4Bwon'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
Qwen3 32Bwon't runoffload
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32Bwon't runoffload
Gemma 3 27Bwon'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
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runwon't run
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.5 Airwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon'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 5080?
Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 for speed. Choose the Mac mini M4 16GB to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080?
At 8k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 runs 16 of the models we track fully in memory and the Mac mini M4 16GB 13; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 holds Devstral Small 2 24B.
Which is faster for local AI, the Mac mini M4 16GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is about 7.6× 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 5080?
In the UK the Mac mini M4 16GB costs £765 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 £1,199 at eBay: the Mac mini M4 16GB is £434 cheaper.

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