M4 16GB vs M4 32GB for local LLMs
26 reports on the M4 16GB and 14 on the M4 32GB
Which is faster for local LLMs?
On Qwen3 8B at 4-bit, the M4 16GB has 16.6 generation tokens/s (2 runs); prompt processing 219.0 tokens/s (one run); the M4 32GB has 19.7 generation tokens/s (one run); prompt processing 223.8 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 about the same on both (120 GB/s on the M4 16GB, 120 on the M4 32GB).
- Memory
- 16GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 120 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 4.3 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 26
- Memory
- 32GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 120 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 4.3 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 14
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 | M4 16GB | M4 32GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 8B4-bit | 16.62 runsPP 219.0 (one run)MLXcontext not stated | 19.7one runPP 223.8 (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 | M4 16GB | M4 32GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 8B | 26.1 t/sQ3_K_M | 11.4 t/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.8 27B | doesn't fit at these settings | 6.8 t/sQ4_K_S |
| Qwen3.8 125B · 6B active | doesn't fit at these settings | doesn't fit at these settings |
| Qwen3.6 35B · 3B active | doesn't fit at these settings | 24.6 t/sQ3_K_M |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B · 13B active | doesn't fit at these settings | doesn't fit at these settings |
| Qwen3.6 27B | doesn't fit at these settings | 6.8 t/sQ4_K_S |
| Gemma 4 26B · 4B active | doesn't fit at these settings | 14.9 t/sQ4_K_M |
Change the context, RAM or model in the calculator: M4 16GB · M4 32GB
Every report on each card, with its source: M4 16GB · M4 32GB