M2 Max 32GB vs AMD Strix Halo 128GB for local LLMs
3 reports on the M2 Max 32GB and 318 on the AMD Strix Halo 128GB
Which is faster for local LLMs?
On Qwen3.6 35B · 3B active at 4-bit, the M2 Max 32GB has 39.3 generation tokens/s (2 runs); prompt processing 671.4 tokens/s (one run); the AMD Strix Halo 128GB has 60.0 generation tokens/s (7 runs); prompt processing 1005.3 tokens/s (7 runs). 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 1.6x higher on the M2 Max 32GB (410 GB/s on the M2 Max 32GB, 256 on the AMD Strix Halo 128GB). Across 2 shared models with generation measurements on both cards, the M2 Max 32GB's median is higher on 1 and the AMD Strix Halo 128GB's on 1.
- Memory
- 32GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 410 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 13.6 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 3
- Memory
- 128GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 256 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 59 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 318
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 | M2 Max 32GB | AMD Strix Halo 128GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.6 35B · 3B active4-bit | 39.32 runsPP 671.4 (one run)llama.cpp, 1 not stated4K to 60K context | 60.07 runsPP 1005.3 (7 runs)llama.cpp, 3 not stated30K context, 6 not stated |
| Ornith1.5 35B · 3B active4-bit | 108.0one runoMLXcontext not stated | 72.6one runPP 1504.9 (one run)llama.cppcontext 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 | M2 Max 32GB | AMD Strix Halo 128GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.6 35B · 3B active | 76.1 t/sQ3_K_M | 12.6 t/sFP16 |
| Ornith1.5 35B · 3B active | 76.1 t/sQ3_K_M | 12.6 t/sFP16 |
| Qwen3.8 27B | 20.9 t/sQ4_K_S | 3.5 t/sFP16 |
| Qwen3.8 125B · 6B active | doesn't fit at these settings | 12.6 t/sQ6_K |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B · 13B active | doesn't fit at these settings | 33.5 t/sQ2_K |
| Qwen3.6 27B | 20.9 t/sQ4_K_S | 3.5 t/sFP16 |
| Gemma 4 26B · 4B active | 46.1 t/sQ4_K_M | 9.5 t/sFP16 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 552B · 16B active | doesn't fit at these settings | doesn't fit at these settings |
Change the context, RAM or model in the calculator: M2 Max 32GB · AMD Strix Halo 128GB
Every report on each card, with its source: M2 Max 32GB · AMD Strix Halo 128GB