readygpu

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell

For running models locally, priced in the US. At 128k context the first runs 69 models fully in memory, the second 51.

In short

The Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB has more memory for models: 96 GB against 32 GB. At 128k context the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB runs 69 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 51; only the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB holds Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B. On the models both run fully in memory, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell are about as fast as each other (estimated). In the US the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB costs $4,550 at eBay and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell $4,650 at eBay: the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB is $100 cheaper.

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

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB

$4,550

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell

$4,650

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecMac Studio M3 Ultra 96GBNVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell
ChipApple M3 Ultra (80-core GPU)–
Memory bus1024-bit256-bit
Memory bandwidth819 GB/s896 GB/s
FP16 compute28 TFLOPS54.94 TFLOPS
SoftwareMetalCUDA
Unified memory96 GB–
GPU can use by default72 GB–
GPU can use, tuned88 GB–
Operating systemmacos–
ProcessorM3 Ultra 32-core–
Storage1000 GB–
GPU–RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell
Memory–32 GB GDDR7
Board power–200 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 Studio M3 Ultra 96GBNVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell
Qwen 3.8 27B14tok/sQ8_018tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B41tok/sQ3_K_Moffload
Qwen 3.6 27B14tok/sQ8_018tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 Coder Next49tok/sQ6_Koffload
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B44tok/sUD-Q3_K_Moffload
gpt-oss 120B40tok/sMXFP4won't run
Gemma 4 31B12tok/sQ8_019tok/sQ4_K_M
Mistral Small 4 119B44tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B55tok/sQ8_064tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.5 27B14tok/sQ8_018tok/sQ6_K
Gemma 4 26B-A4B45tok/sQ8_047tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.5 Air11tok/sQ2_Kwon't run
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B56tok/sQ6_Koffload
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B55tok/sQ8_065tok/sQ6_K
GLM 4.7 Flash26tok/sQ8_030tok/sQ6_K
Devstral Small 2 24B11tok/sQ8_0offload
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B76tok/sUD-Q6_K_XL90tok/sUD-Q5_K_M
Kimi Linear 48B-A3B75tok/sQ8_0114tok/sQ4_K_M
gpt-oss 20B57tok/sMXFP459tok/sMXFP4
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B20tok/sQ8_023tok/sQ4_K_M
Qwen3 32B8tok/sQ8_0offload
Gemma 4 12B35tok/sQ8_037tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B38tok/sQ8_040tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 3 27B13tok/sQ8_018tok/sQ5_K_M
Mistral Small 3.2 24B11tok/sQ8_0offload
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B8tok/sQ8_0offload
Ministral 3 14B15tok/sQ8_018tok/sQ5_K_M
Qwen3 14B14tok/sQ8_017tok/sQ5_K_M
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B19tok/sQ8_020tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8B19tok/sQ8_020tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14B13tok/sQ8_0offload
Qwen 3.5 4B60tok/sQ8_063tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B20tok/sQ8_020tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8B17tok/sQ8_018tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B44tok/sQ8_046tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B43tok/sQ8_044tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B22tok/sQ6_K23tok/sQ6_K
Qwen2.5 0.5B249tok/sQ8_0259tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 0.8B218tok/sQ8_0228tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.5 2B174tok/sQ5_K_M181tok/sQ5_K_M
LFM3 1.7B154tok/sQ8_0160tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B94tok/sQ8_098tok/sQ8_0
Mellum2.1 12B A2.5B Thinking70tok/sQ8_073tok/sQ8_0
Spark X2.5 4B67tok/smlx-4bit70tok/smlx-4bit
MiniCPM5 2B64tok/sQ8_067tok/sQ8_0
FrogNano 4B 260959tok/sQ8_062tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 2.6B49tok/sQ8_051tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 VL 3B49tok/sQ8_051tok/sQ8_0
Kimi VL A3B Thinking 250645tok/sQ8_046tok/sQ8_0
Kimi VL A3B44tok/smlx-8bit45tok/smlx-8bit
GLM 4 9B 041439tok/smlx-5bit41tok/smlx-5bit
granite vision 4.1 4b37tok/sQ8_039tok/sQ8_0
granite 4.2 3b36tok/sQ8_038tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.6V Flash35tok/sQ8_036tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B34tok/sQ8_036tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.1V 9B Thinking31tok/smlx-8bit32tok/smlx-8bit
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 251230tok/sQ8_032tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 24B A2B25tok/sQ8_027tok/sQ6_K
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B21tok/sQ8_022tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B Reasoning 251220tok/sQ8_020tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3.8 27B OBLITERATED18tok/smlx-4bit19tok/smlx-4bit
Muse Glimmer 30B16tok/sQ8_022tok/sQ6_K
Ministral 3 14B Reasoning 251215tok/sQ8_018tok/sQ5_K_M
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B13tok/sQ8_0offload
Devstral Small 250711tok/sQ8_0offload
Magistral Small 250611tok/sQ8_0offload
Magistral Small 250711tok/sQ8_0offload
Magistral Small 250911tok/sQ8_0offload
granite 4.2 30b8tok/sQ8_0offload
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
Llama 3.3 70Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 0528won't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Zerowon't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3 0324won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.1won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminuswon't runwon't run
DeepSeek V3.2won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731won't runwon't run
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Expwon't runwon't run
Devstral 2 123B Instruct 2512won't runwon't run
GLM 4.5won't runwon't run
GLM 4.5Vwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.6won't runwon't run
GLM 4.6Vwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.7won't runwon't run
GLM 5won't runwon't run
GLM 5.1won't runwon't run
GLM 5.2won't runwon't run
GLM 5.3won't runwon't run
Kimi Dev 72Bwon't runwon't run
Kimi K2won't runwon't run
Kimi K2 Instruct 0905won't runwon't run
Kimi K2 Thinkingwon't runwon't run
Kimi K2.5won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.1won't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.5won't runwon't run
MiniMax M3won't runwon't run
Mistral Medium 3.5 128Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
Choose the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB to run bigger models. Choose the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
At 128k context the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB runs 69 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 51; only the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB holds Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B.
Which is faster for local AI, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
On the models both run fully in memory, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell are about as fast as each other (estimated).
What is the price difference between the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
In the US the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB costs $4,550 at eBay and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell $4,650 at eBay: the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB is $100 cheaper.

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