MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB vs V100 16GB PCIe for Local LLMs
The V100 16GB PCIe has about 125% more memory bandwidth (900 vs 400 GB/s). Batch-1 decode tracks bandwidth closely, so a model that fits both cards should decode roughly 125% faster on the V100 16GB PCIe. The MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB fits more of the catalog at Q4/8K — 57 vs 25 of 73 models (128 vs 16 GB VRAM). Largest model that fits the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB but not the V100 16GB PCIe: Step-3.5-Flash (196.8B). MSRP is $4,199 for the MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB vs $8,000 for the V100 16GB PCIe. MSRP is a launch list price, not live retail — Amazon prices move; click through for the current price. Not retail-shoppable: V100 16GB PCIe (datacenter-class; cloud rental is the realistic way to use it). In the Q4/8K head-to-head below (49 shared models), the V100 16GB PCIe posts the higher tok/s in 42 rows vs 7. Methodology.