GPU comparison
MacBook Air/Pro M4 (16GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24GB) for local LLMs
How the two stack up for running open-source LLMs locally — memory, bandwidth, price, and how many of the 48 tracked models each one can run.
| MacBook Air/Pro M4 (16GB) | NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 16.0 GB | 24.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 936 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $1,199 | $1,099 |
| LLMs it runs | 19 of 48 | 34 of 48 |
| Best model it runs | Devstral Small 2 24B · 8–12 tok/s | Gemma 4 31B · 39–58 tok/s |
The NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24GB) runs 15 more of the tracked models (34 vs 19), thanks to its 24.0 GB of memory. The NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24GB) has more memory bandwidth (936 GB/s), so it generates tokens faster at the same model and quant.