M4 Max 128GB vs M4 Pro 64GB for local LLMs
52 reports on the M4 Max 128GB and 33 on the M4 Pro 64GB
Which is faster for local LLMs?
On Qwen3.8 27B at 4-bit, the M4 Max 128GB has 21.8 generation tokens/s (one run); prompt processing 236.6 tokens/s (one run); the M4 Pro 64GB has 12.9 generation tokens/s (4 runs); prompt processing 126.2 tokens/s (4 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 2.0x higher on the M4 Max 128GB (546 GB/s on the M4 Max 128GB, 273 on the M4 Pro 64GB). Across 6 shared models with generation measurements on both cards, the M4 Max 128GB's median is higher on 6 and the M4 Pro 64GB's on 0.
- Memory
- 128GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 546 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 18.4 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 52
- Memory
- 64GB unified
- Memory bandwidth
- 273 GB/s
- FP16 compute
- 9.2 TFLOPS
- Reports
- 33
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 Max 128GB | M4 Pro 64GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8 27B4-bit | 21.8one runPP 236.6 (one run)llama.cppcontext not stated | 12.94 runsPP 126.2 (4 runs)llama.cpp, 2 not statedcontext not stated |
| gpt-oss 21B · 3.6B active4-bit | 123.1one runPP 1577.0 (one run)llama.cppcontext not stated | 73.63 runsPP 834.2 (3 runs)llama.cpp, 2 not statedcontext not stated |
| Gemma 4 26B · 4B active4-bit | 88.1one runPP 1408.1 (one run)llama.cppcontext not stated | 57.32 runsPP 774.8 (2 runs)llama.cpp, 1 not statedcontext not stated |
| Gemma 4 12B4-bit | 54.5one runPP 589.0 (one run)llama.cppcontext not stated | 30.02 runsPP 291.5 (2 runs)llama.cpp, 1 not statedcontext not stated |
| Qwen3 30B · 3B active4-bit | 127.7one runvllm-mlxcontext not stated | 85.92 runsPP 793.1 (2 runs)llama.cpp, 1 not statedcontext not stated |
| Qwen3.6 35B · 3B active4-bit | 81.1one runPP 1423.5 (one run)llama.cppcontext not stated | 57.52 runsPP 767.1 (2 runs)llama.cpp, 1 not statedcontext 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 Max 128GB | M4 Pro 64GB |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8 27B | 6.7 t/sFP16 | 7.7 t/sQ8_0 |
| gpt-oss 21B · 3.6B active | 40.5 t/sFP16 | 46.0 t/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 4 26B · 4B active | 18.2 t/sFP16 | 20.7 t/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 4 12B | 15.2 t/sFP16 | 8.6 t/sFP16 |
| Qwen3 30B · 3B active | 23.7 t/sFP16 | 26.9 t/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.6 35B · 3B active | 21.2 t/sFP16 | 24.1 t/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen3.8 125B · 6B active | 30.7 t/sQ5_K_S | 34.9 t/sQ2_K |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B · 13B active | 48.3 t/sQ2_K | doesn't fit at these settings |
| Qwen3.6 27B | 6.7 t/sFP16 | 7.7 t/sQ8_0 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 552B · 16B active | doesn't fit at these settings | doesn't fit at these settings |
| GLM-5.3 320B · 18B active | doesn't fit at these settings | doesn't fit at these settings |
| Qwen3.5 9B | 20.2 t/sFP16 | 11.5 t/sFP16 |
Change the context, RAM or model in the calculator: M4 Max 128GB · M4 Pro 64GB
Every report on each card, with its source: M4 Max 128GB · M4 Pro 64GB