GPU comparison
MacBook Air M4 (24GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 5080 (16GB) for local LLMs
How the two stack up for running open-source LLMs locally — memory, bandwidth, price, and how many of the 64 tracked models each one can run.
| MacBook Air M4 (24GB) | NVIDIA RTX 5080 (16GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 24.0 GB | 16.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 960 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $1,399 | $1,399 |
| LLMs it runs | 45 of 64 | 45 of 64 |
| Best model it runs | Qwen3.8 27B · 7–10 tok/s | Qwen3.8 27B · 54–82 tok/s |
Both run the same number of models, but the MacBook Air M4 (24GB) has more memory (24.0 GB), so it can hold larger models at higher quality. The NVIDIA RTX 5080 (16GB) has more memory bandwidth (960 GB/s), so it generates tokens faster at the same model and quant.