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Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

For running models locally, priced in the US. At 32k context the first runs 30 models fully in memory, the second 26.

In short

The Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB has more memory for models: 48 GB against 24 GB. At 32k context the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB runs 30 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 26; only the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB holds Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is about 3.5× as fast as the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB (estimated, median across models). In the US the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB costs $2,149 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 $2,073 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is $76 cheaper.

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

Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB

$2,149

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

$2,073

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecMac mini M4 Pro 48GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
ChipApple M4 Pro (20-core GPU)–
Memory bus256-bit384-bit
Memory bandwidth273 GB/s1,008 GB/s
FP16 compute8.08 TFLOPS165 TFLOPS
SoftwareMetalCUDA
Unified memory48 GB–
GPU can use by default36 GB–
GPU can use, tuned40 GB–
Operating systemmacos–
ProcessorM4 Pro 14-core–
Storage512 GB–
GPU–GeForce RTX 4090
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.

ModelMac mini M4 Pro 48GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
Qwen 3.8 27B6tok/sQ8_028tok/sUD-Q5_K_M
Qwen 3.6 27B6tok/sQ8_029tok/sQ5_K_M
Gemma 4 31B5tok/sQ8_029tok/sQ4_K_M
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B28tok/sQ8_0145tok/sUD-Q4_K_M
Qwen 3.5 27B6tok/sQ8_029tok/sQ5_K_M
Gemma 4 26B-A4B21tok/sQ8_084tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B28tok/sQ8_0146tok/sQ4_K_M
GLM 4.7 Flash15tok/sQ8_070tok/sQ5_K_M
Devstral Small 2 24B6tok/sQ8_028tok/sQ5_K_M
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B30tok/sUD-Q6_K_XLoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3B44tok/sQ5_K_Moffload
gpt-oss 20B33tok/sMXFP4116tok/sMXFP4
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B17tok/sQ8_074tok/sQ4_K_M
Qwen3 32B5tok/sQ6_Koffload
Gemma 4 12B13tok/sQ8_046tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B17tok/sQ8_059tok/sQ8_0
Mistral Small 3.2 24B6tok/sQ8_028tok/sQ5_K_M
Gemma 3 27B6tok/sQ8_028tok/sQ5_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B5tok/sQ6_Koffload
Ministral 3 14B9tok/sQ8_032tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 14B8tok/sQ8_030tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B13tok/sQ8_046tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8B13tok/sQ8_046tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14B8tok/sQ8_028tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B32tok/sQ8_0112tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B13tok/sQ8_046tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8B12tok/sQ8_043tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B19tok/sQ8_068tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B40tok/sQ8_0140tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B16tok/sQ6_K57tok/sQ6_K
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Bwon't runoffload
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runoffload
Mistral Small 4 119Bwon't runoffload
GLM 4.5 Airwon't runoffload
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon'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
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
Llama 3.3 70Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
Choose the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
At 32k context the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB runs 30 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 26; only the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB holds Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B.
Which is faster for local AI, the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is about 3.5× as fast as the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB (estimated, median across models).
What is the price difference between the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
In the US the Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB costs $2,149 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 $2,073 at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is $76 cheaper.

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