M1 Max 32GB vs M3 Ultra 256GB for local LLMs
2 reports on the M1 Max 32GB and 10 on the M3 Ultra 256GB
Which is faster for local LLMs?
On Qwen3.8 27B at 4-bit, the M1 Max 32GB has 15.8 generation tokens/s (one run); prompt processing 81.8 tokens/s (one run); the M3 Ultra 256GB has 14.0 generation tokens/s (one run); prompt processing 93.1 tokens/s (one run). Those are community reports whose engines and settings differ, so the gap is a rough sign, not a controlled measure of the two cards. Memory bandwidth, which caps how fast a card can write, is 2.0x higher on the M3 Ultra 256GB (410 GB/s on the M1 Max 32GB, 819 on the M3 Ultra 256GB).
- Memory
- 32GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 410 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 10.4 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 2
- Memory
- 256GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 819 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 28.4 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 10
Measured on both
Generation and prompt processing speeds from plain runs (one device, one request, no speculative decoding, the whole model in the device's memory) of the same model size at the same bit class. Each side shows the engines and reported context behind its median. Context can mean a configured window or prompt depth, so these are community comparisons with differing settings. How to read these
| Model | M1 Max 32GB | M3 Ultra 256GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8 27B4-bit | 15.8one runPP 81.8 (one run)MLXcontext not stated | 14.0one runPP 93.1 (one run)Ollamacontext not stated |
Estimated by the calculator
The quant the calculator recommends for each card and its estimated speed at a 32,768-token context with 32 GB of system RAM, from memory bandwidth and the model's shape. Where a model was also measured above, the measurement wins.
| Model | M1 Max 32GB | M3 Ultra 256GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8 27B | 20.1 t/sQ4_K_S | 8.0 t/sFP16 |
| Qwen3.8 125B · 6B active | doesn't fit at these settings | 27.3 t/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B · 13B active | doesn't fit at these settings | 36.0 t/sQ4_K_M |
| Qwen3.6 35B · 3B active | 73.2 t/sQ3_K_M | 28.7 t/sFP16 |
| Qwen3.6 27B | 20.1 t/sQ4_K_S | 8.0 t/sFP16 |
| Gemma 4 26B · 4B active | 44.3 t/sQ4_K_M | 21.5 t/sFP16 |
| GLM-5.3 320B · 18B active | doesn't fit at these settings | 19.1 t/sQ3_K_M |
Change the context, RAM or model in the calculator: M1 Max 32GB · M3 Ultra 256GB
Every report on each card, with its source: M1 Max 32GB · M3 Ultra 256GB