GPU comparison
MacBook Air/Pro M4 (16GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 5090 (32GB) for local LLMs
How the two stack up for running open-source LLMs locally — memory, bandwidth, price, and how many of the 18 tracked models each one can run.
| MacBook Air/Pro M4 (16GB) | NVIDIA RTX 5090 (32GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 16.0 GB | 32.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 1792 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $1,199 | $2,499 |
| LLMs it runs | 10 of 18 | 15 of 18 |
| Best model it runs | GLM-4.7 Flash (MoE) · 43–64 tok/s | Gemma 4 31B · 55–83 tok/s |
The NVIDIA RTX 5090 (32GB) runs 5 more of the tracked models (15 vs 10), thanks to its 32.0 GB of memory. The NVIDIA RTX 5090 (32GB) has more memory bandwidth (1792 GB/s), so it generates tokens faster at the same model and quant.