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Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

For running models locally, priced in the US. At 8k context the first runs 36 models fully in memory, the second 29.

In short

The Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB has more memory for models: 64 GB against 32 GB. At 8k context the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB runs 36 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 29; only the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB holds Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is about 3.1× as fast as the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB (estimated, median across models). In the US the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB costs $3,400 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 $4,921 at eBay: the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB is $1,521 cheaper.

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

Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB

$3,400

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

$4,921

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecMac Studio M4 Max 64GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
ChipApple M4 Max (40-core GPU)–
Memory bus512-bit512-bit
Memory bandwidth546 GB/s1,792 GB/s
FP16 compute16.16 TFLOPS209 TFLOPS
SoftwareMetalCUDA
Unified memory64 GB–
GPU can use by default48 GB–
GPU can use, tuned56 GB–
Operating systemmacos–
ProcessorM4 Max 16-core–
Storage1000 GB–
GPU–GeForce RTX 5090
Memory–32 GB GDDR7
Board power–575 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 M4 Max 64GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
Qwen 3.8 27B12tok/sQ8_037tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B58tok/sUD-Q2_K_XLoffload
Qwen 3.6 27B12tok/sQ8_038tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 Coder Next81tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Gemma 4 31B10tok/sQ8_042tok/sQ6_K
Mistral Small 4 119B83tok/sUD-Q2_K_XLoffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B64tok/sQ8_0249tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.5 27B12tok/sQ8_038tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 26B-A4B47tok/sQ8_0147tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.5 Air25tok/sQ2_Koffload
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B103tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B64tok/sQ8_0253tok/sQ6_K
GLM 4.7 Flash37tok/sQ8_0117tok/sQ8_0
Devstral Small 2 24B13tok/sQ8_042tok/sQ8_0
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B62tok/sUD-Q6_K_XLoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3B83tok/sQ6_K343tok/sQ4_K_M
gpt-oss 20B81tok/sMXFP4253tok/sMXFP4
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B53tok/sQ8_0204tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 32B10tok/sQ8_038tok/sQ6_K
Gemma 4 12B27tok/sQ8_085tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B36tok/sQ8_0113tok/sQ8_0
Mistral Small 3.2 24B13tok/sQ8_042tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 3 27B12tok/sQ8_037tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B10tok/sQ8_038tok/sQ6_K
Llama 3.3 70B8tok/sQ4_K_Moffload
Ministral 3 14B23tok/sQ8_071tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 14B21tok/sQ8_065tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B36tok/sQ8_0112tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8B36tok/sQ8_0112tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14B21tok/sQ8_064tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B74tok/sQ8_0231tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B35tok/sQ8_0109tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8B33tok/sQ8_0104tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B42tok/sQ8_0131tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B145tok/sQ8_0455tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B46tok/sQ6_K145tok/sQ6_K
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon'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
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
Choose the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 for speed. Choose the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
At 8k context the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB runs 36 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 29; only the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB holds Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B.
Which is faster for local AI, the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is about 3.1× as fast as the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB (estimated, median across models).
What is the price difference between the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
In the US the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB costs $3,400 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 $4,921 at eBay: the Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB is $1,521 cheaper.

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