Mac mini M4 32GB vs RTX 5090 32GB for Local LLMs

The RTX 5090 32GB has about 1393% more memory bandwidth (1,792 vs 120 GB/s). Batch-1 decode tracks bandwidth closely, so a model that fits both cards should decode roughly 1393% faster on the RTX 5090 32GB. Both fit the same number of catalog models at Q4/8K (38 of 61; 32 vs 32 GB VRAM). MSRP is $999 for the Mac mini M4 32GB vs $1,999 for the RTX 5090 32GB. 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 (47 shared models), the RTX 5090 32GB posts the higher tok/s in 47 rows vs 0. Methodology.

Spec comparison

	Mac mini M4 32GB	RTX 5090 32GB
Vendor	Apple	NVIDIA
VRAM	32 GB	32 GB
Memory type	LPDDR5X	GDDR7
Memory bandwidth	120 GB/s	1,792 GB/s
TDP	155 W	575 W
MSRP (list)	$999	$1,999
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 47 shared models

Model	Params (B)	Mac mini M4 32GB tok/s	Mac mini M4 32GB fits	RTX 5090 32GB tok/s	RTX 5090 32GB fits	Winner
Qwen3-0.6B	0.8	95.5 est.	Yes	1425.5 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
gemma-3-1b-it	1.0	76.4 est.	Yes	1140.4 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct	1.2	63.6 est.	Yes	950.3 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Qwen3-1.7B	2.0	38.2 est.	Yes	570.2 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Qwen3-Coder-Next	79.7	36.1 est.	No	538.6 est.	No	RTX 5090 32GB
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct	81.3	34.7 est.	No	518.3 est.	No	RTX 5090 32GB
Qwen3-30B-A3B	30.5	25.5 est.	Yes	380.1 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct	30.5	25.5 est.	Yes	380.1 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
GLM-4.7-Flash	31.2	25.5 est.	Yes	380.1 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507	30.5	25.5 est.	Yes	380.1 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct	3.2	41.3 measured	Yes	356.4 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Phi-4-mini-instruct	3.8	20.1 est.	Yes	300.1 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Phi-4-mini-reasoning	3.8	20.1 est.	Yes	300.1 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
gemma-3-4b-it	4.3	19.6 est.	Yes	292.4 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB
Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507	4.0	19.1 est.	Yes	285.1 est.	Yes	RTX 5090 32GB

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

	Mac mini M4 32GB	RTX 5090 32GB
Catalog models that fit	38 of 61	38 of 61
Largest exclusive fit	—	—

Mac mini M4 32GB details → · RTX 5090 32GB details →