M3 Max vs M4 Max
Side-by-side LLM inference benchmarks. 3 shared model tests. Measured tokens per second, not estimates.
Both chips are aimed at Mac Studio and MacBook Pro users doing serious compute. The key question: how much faster is M4 Max, and does it justify the upgrade cost?
Benchmark comparison — 3 shared models
Each row shows the fastest published result for that model on each chip. Higher tok/s is better. % column shows M4 Max vs M3 Max.
| Model | M3 Max | M4 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.2 1B Instruct | 133.0 tok/s Q4_K - Medium |
180.3 tok/s Q4_K - Medium |
+36% |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | 37.5 tok/s Q4_K - Medium |
52.4 tok/s Q4_K - Medium |
+40% |
| Qwen 2.5 14B Instruct | 19.8 tok/s Q4_K - Medium |
27.7 tok/s Q4_K - Medium |
+40% |
Data source: benchmarks.json. All rows from LocalScore community aggregation unless marked "factory lab".
Verdict
On shared model tests, M4 Max (40-core GPU, 64 GB) consistently outperforms M3 Max (30-core GPU, 36 GB) by 35–40%. The gain comes from higher memory bandwidth, not just faster cores. If you own an M3 Max and primarily run 7B–14B models, the throughput gain alone may not justify the upgrade. If you are buying new or need the larger RAM ceiling (64 GB vs 36 GB), M4 Max is the clear choice.
RAM ceiling difference: M3 Max tops out at 128 GB; M4 Max tops out at 128 GB. At the base configurations tested, M4 Max has 64 GB vs M3 Max 36 GB — the extra RAM matters for 32B+ models.
Chip pages
Data
benchmarks.json — full dataset · chips.json — chip summaries · benchmarks.csv — CSV export