A100 80GB SXM4 vs MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB for Local LLMs
The A100 80GB SXM4 has about 410% more memory bandwidth (2,039 vs 400 GB/s). Batch-1 decode tracks bandwidth closely, so a model that fits both cards should decode roughly 410% faster on the A100 80GB SXM4. The MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB fits more of the catalog at Q4/8K — 47 vs 46 of 61 models (128 vs 80 GB VRAM). Largest model that fits the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB but not the A100 80GB SXM4: DeepSeek-V4-Flash (158.1B). MSRP is $15,000 for the A100 80GB SXM4 vs $4,199 for the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB. MSRP is a launch list price, not live retail — Amazon prices move; click through for the current price. Not retail-shoppable: A100 80GB SXM4 (datacenter-class; cloud rental is the realistic way to use it). In the Q4/8K head-to-head below (54 shared models), the A100 80GB SXM4 posts the higher tok/s in 53 rows vs 1. Methodology.