MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB vs RX 9070 XT 16GB for Local LLMs
The RX 9070 XT 16GB has about 60% more memory bandwidth (640 vs 400 GB/s). Batch-1 decode tracks bandwidth closely, so a model that fits both cards should decode roughly 60% faster on the RX 9070 XT 16GB. The MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB fits more of the catalog at Q4/8K — 47 vs 25 of 61 models (128 vs 16 GB VRAM). Largest model that fits the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB but not the RX 9070 XT 16GB: DeepSeek-V4-Flash (158.1B). MSRP is $4,199 for the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB vs $599 for the RX 9070 XT 16GB. 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 (44 shared models), the RX 9070 XT 16GB posts the higher tok/s in 38 rows vs 6. Methodology.