MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB vs RX 7800 XT 16GB for Local LLMs
The RX 7800 XT 16GB has about 14% more memory bandwidth (624 vs 546 GB/s). Batch-1 decode tracks bandwidth closely, so a model that fits both cards should decode roughly 14% faster on the RX 7800 XT 16GB. The MacBook Pro M4 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 M4 Max 128GB but not the RX 7800 XT 16GB: DeepSeek-V4-Flash (158.1B). MSRP is $4,399 for the MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB vs $499 for the RX 7800 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 7800 XT 16GB posts the higher tok/s in 37 rows vs 7. Methodology.