GPU comparison
MacBook Air/Pro M5 (16GB) vs MacBook Pro / Mac mini M5 Pro (48GB) 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/Pro M5 (16GB) | MacBook Pro / Mac mini M5 Pro (48GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 16.0 GB | 48.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 153 GB/s | 307 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $1,099 | $2,299 |
| LLMs it runs | 27 of 64 | 49 of 64 |
| Best model it runs | Devstral Small 2 24B · 10–15 tok/s | Qwen3.8 27B · 14–21 tok/s |
The MacBook Pro / Mac mini M5 Pro (48GB) runs 22 more of the tracked models (49 vs 27), thanks to its 48.0 GB of memory. The MacBook Pro / Mac mini M5 Pro (48GB) has more memory bandwidth (307 GB/s), so it generates tokens faster at the same model and quant.