Side-by-side simulation · recommended settings

Mac Mini M4 32GB vs M4 Pro 48GB Local LLM Comparison

If you look at the price and 27B capacity, the M4 32GB is the right choice. If you want 35B space and bandwidth, the M4 Pro 48GB is the right choice.

Choose devices and a model

Left deviceRight device

Model to run on both

Comparison mode

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Input length

Same 117output tokens. Only evidence-qualified acceleration is selected automatically; runtime formats are shown on each device.

Left

Ready

Mac mini M4 32GB

First token5.5 ~ 15.7 s

Prefill263 ~ 757 tok/s

Decode7.8 ~ 22.5 tok/s

Press Start above to generate the same answer on both devices.

MLX 4-bit0.0s · 0/117

Right

Ready

Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB

First token2.7 ~ 6.3 s

Prefill658 ~ 1,547 tok/s

Decode19.6 ~ 46.1 tok/s

Press Start above to generate the same answer on both devices.

MLX 4-bit0.0s · 0/117

With these settings, Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB finishes the full answer About 2.4× faster.

Compare from input processing to completion of 117 token response.

Which one fits my needs?

Answer completion

Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB

At the estimate midpoint, it finishes the same answer about 2.4× faster.

Prompt processing

Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB

The estimated input-processing midpoint is higher at 1,103 tok/s.

Image and video generation

Check the media model

LLM speed does not tell you media-generation performance. Choose the image or video model and resolution separately.

Runtime

Settings for your hardware

MLX 4-bit / MLX 4-bit. When runtime paths differ, the speed gap also includes software and model-format differences.

Estimated power draw

Mac mini M4 32GB

Estimated LLM power draw is lower at about 48 W. Noise and physical size need a separate check.

Local pricing

Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB costs about 94 × KRW 10,000 more at the reference-price midpoint, with an estimated answer time about 58% shorter.

Before choosing hardware

Measure	Mac mini M4 32GB	Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB
Available fast memory	27GB	41GB
Memory bandwidth	120GB/s	273GB/s
Estimated total time	21 s	8.7 s
Estimated sustained LLM load	about 48W	about 92W
Korean price range (KRW)	180–240 × KRW 10,000	263–344 × KRW 10,000

Mac mini M4 32GB details (Korean)

Set up this device Image and video preview

Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB details (Korean)

Set up this device Image and video preview

Estimated ranges for one user. Multi-GPU and multi-device results depend on the runtime and interconnect.