GPU comparison
MacBook Air M4 (24GB) vs MacBook Pro M4 Max (48GB) 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 M4 (24GB) | MacBook Pro M4 Max (48GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 24.0 GB | 48.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 546 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $1,399 | $3,199 |
| LLMs it runs | 13 of 18 | 15 of 18 |
| Best model it runs | Gemma 4 26B-A4B (MoE) · 20–31 tok/s | Gemma 4 31B · 13–20 tok/s |
The MacBook Pro M4 Max (48GB) runs 2 more of the tracked models (15 vs 13), thanks to its 48.0 GB of memory. The MacBook Pro M4 Max (48GB) has more memory bandwidth (546 GB/s), so it generates tokens faster at the same model and quant.