GPU comparison
MacBook Air/Pro M5 (24GB) 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 64 tracked models each one can run.
| MacBook Air/Pro M5 (24GB) | NVIDIA RTX 5090 (32GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 24.0 GB | 32.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 153 GB/s | 1792 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $1,299 | $4,399 |
| LLMs it runs | 45 of 64 | 48 of 64 |
| Best model it runs | Qwen3.8 27B · 9–13 tok/s | Qwen3.8 27B · 48–72 tok/s |
The NVIDIA RTX 5090 (32GB) runs 3 more of the tracked models (48 vs 45), 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.