Home › GPUs & Macs › Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) vs Apple M3 Max (40-core GPU)
Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) vs Apple M3 Max (40-core GPU) for local LLMs
Across 6 tests measured on both, the Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) is faster in 6 and generates a median 1.26× the tokens/s of the Apple M3 Max (40-core GPU).
On Llama 2 7B (F16, llama-bench) the Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) generates 31.6 tokens/s and the Apple M3 Max (40-core GPU) 25.1 tokens/s (measured).
Same model, same quant, same test
| Model | Quant / test | M4 Max (40-core GPU) tok/s | M3 Max (40-core GPU) tok/s | Faster | Sources and run details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 2 7B | F16 llama-bench | 31.6 Metal | 25.1 Metal | M4 Max (40-core GPU) +26% | llama.cpp #4167 M4 Max (40-core GPU) · llama.cpp #4167 M3 Max (40-core GPU) |
| Llama 2 7B | Q4_0 llama-bench | 83.1 Metal | 66.3 Metal | M4 Max (40-core GPU) +25% | llama.cpp #4167 M4 Max (40-core GPU) · llama.cpp #4167 M3 Max (40-core GPU) |
| Llama 2 7B | Q8_0 llama-bench | 54.0 Metal | 42.8 Metal | M4 Max (40-core GPU) +26% | llama.cpp #4167 M4 Max (40-core GPU) · llama.cpp #4167 M3 Max (40-core GPU) |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Q4_K_M LocalScore | 52.9 llamafile | 35.6 llamafile | M4 Max (40-core GPU) +48% | LocalScore M4 Max (40-core GPU) · LocalScore M3 Max (40-core GPU) |
| Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | Q4_K_M LocalScore | 180 llamafile | 146 llamafile | M4 Max (40-core GPU) +23% | LocalScore M4 Max (40-core GPU) · LocalScore M3 Max (40-core GPU) |
| Qwen2.5 14B Instruct | Q4_K_M LocalScore | 28.9 llamafile | 23.6 llamafile | M4 Max (40-core GPU) +22% | LocalScore M4 Max (40-core GPU) · LocalScore M3 Max (40-core GPU) |
Generation speed in tokens/s, best measured backend for each chip (shown under the number). Backends can differ between the two chips; check them before drawing conclusions. Measured results only, nothing estimated.
Specs
| Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) | Apple M3 Max (40-core GPU) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | Unified memory | Unified memory |
| Memory bandwidth | 546 GB/s | 400 GB/s |
All results for the Apple M4 Max (40-core GPU) · All results for the Apple M3 Max (40-core GPU) · More comparisons