MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB vs MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB for Local LLMs

The MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB has about 36% more memory bandwidth (546 vs 400 GB/s). Batch-1 decode tracks bandwidth closely, so a model that fits both cards should decode roughly 36% faster on the MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB. Both fit the same number of catalog models at Q4/8K (47 of 61; 128 vs 128 GB VRAM). MSRP is $4,199 for the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB vs $4,399 for the MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB. 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 M4 Max 128GB posts the higher tok/s in 59 rows vs 0. Methodology.

Spec comparison

	MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Vendor	Apple	Apple
VRAM	128 GB	128 GB
Memory type	LPDDR5	LPDDR5X
Memory bandwidth	400 GB/s	546 GB/s
TDP	140 W	160 W
MSRP (list)	$4,199	$4,399
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 M3 Max 128GB tok/s	MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB fits	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB tok/s	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB fits	Winner
Qwen3-0.6B	0.8	318.2 est.	Yes	434.3 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
gemma-3-1b-it	1.0	254.5 est.	Yes	347.5 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct	1.2	212.1 est.	Yes	289.5 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Qwen3-1.7B	2.0	127.3 est.	Yes	173.7 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Qwen3-30B-A3B	30.5	84.8 est.	Yes	115.8 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct	30.5	84.8 est.	Yes	115.8 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
GLM-4.7-Flash	31.2	84.8 est.	Yes	115.8 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507	30.5	84.8 est.	Yes	115.8 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct	81.3	84.8 est.	Yes	115.8 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Qwen3-Coder-Next	79.7	84.8 est.	Yes	115.8 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct	3.2	79.5 est.	Yes	108.6 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
MiniMax-M2.7	228.7	71.8 est.	No	98.1 est.	No	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
gpt-oss-20b	21.5	70.7 est.	Yes	96.5 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Phi-4-mini-instruct	3.8	67.0 est.	Yes	91.4 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Phi-4-mini-reasoning	3.8	67.0 est.	Yes	91.4 est.	Yes	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB

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 M3 Max 128GB	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Catalog models that fit	47 of 61	47 of 61
Largest exclusive fit	—	—

MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB details → · MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB details →