MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB vs Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB for Local LLMs

The MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB has about 47% more memory bandwidth (400 vs 273 GB/s). Batch-1 decode tracks bandwidth closely, so a model that fits both cards should decode roughly 47% faster on the MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB. Both fit the same number of catalog models at Q4/8K (44 of 69; 64 vs 64 GB VRAM). MSRP is $3,899 for the MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB vs $2,199 for the Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB. MSRP is a launch list price, not live retail — Amazon prices move; click through for the current price. In the Q4/8K head-to-head below (59 shared models), the MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB posts the higher tok/s in 58 rows vs 1. Methodology.

Spec comparison

	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB	Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB
Vendor	Apple	Apple
VRAM	64 GB	64 GB
Memory type	LPDDR5	LPDDR5X
Memory bandwidth	400 GB/s	273 GB/s
TDP	120 W	155 W
MSRP (list)	$3,899	$2,199
Buy	Search Amazon (affiliate)	Search Amazon (affiliate)

MSRP is the launch list price, not live retail. Buy links are Amazon affiliate links — the price after you click is the live price.

Q4 / 8K head-to-head — top 15 of 59 shared models

Model	Params (B)	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB tok/s	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB fits	Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB tok/s	Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB fits	Winner
MiniCPM5-1B	1.08	235.7 est.	Yes	160.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Qwen3.5-2B	2.0	127.3 est.	Yes	86.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
gpt-oss-120b	120.4	125.3 est.	No	85.5 est.	No	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-layer-mix-bpw-3.8-mlx	2.3	110.7 est.	Yes	75.5 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Mistral-Small-4-119B-2603	119.0	99.8 est.	No	68.1 est.	No	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B	36.0	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B	34.7	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
GLM-4.7-Flash	31.2	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507	30.5	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Nemotron-3-Nano-Omni-30B-A3B-Reasoning-BF16	30.0	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Qwen3-Coder-Next	79.7	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Ornith-1.0-35B	35.0	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct	81.3	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
qwen35b-a3b-fable-sft-abliterated	34.7	84.8 est.	Yes	57.9 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB
Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct	3.2	79.5 est.	Yes	54.3 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB

est. = bandwidth-based estimate; measured = curated real benchmark that overrides the estimate. Fits = weights + KV(8K) + 1 GB overhead ≤ 95% of VRAM.

Fit coverage at Q4 / 8K

	MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB	Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB
Catalog models that fit	44 of 69	44 of 69
Largest exclusive fit	—	—

MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB details → · Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB details →