Head-to-Head Showdown

Apple Mac mini (M4, 16GB) vs Budget Workhorse PC (RTX 3060 12GB)

Comparing ARM architecture against x86 for local AI inference. Review generation throughput, memory architecture, and runner compatibility.

Select Any Two Systems to Compare Head-to-Head

System A (Left)

System B (Right)

System A

Apple Mac mini (M4, 16GB)

Apple M4 (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU)

16 GB MemoryARM~15.9 t/s

System B

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA RTX 3060 (12GB VRAM)

16 GB Memoryx86~47.8 t/s

Specification	Apple Mac mini (M4, 16GB)	Budget Workhorse PC (RTX 3060 12GB)
Architecture	ARM	x86
Processor	Apple M4 (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU)	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA RTX 3060 (12GB VRAM)
Operating System	macOS	Windows / Linux
System RAM / Unified Memory	16 GB	16 GB
GPU-Usable Memory (VRAM or unified)	10.7 GB	12 GB
Memory Bandwidth	120 GB/s	360 GB/s
Memory Type & Bandwidth	Unified Memory (120 GB/s)	DDR4-3200 + 12GB GDDR6 VRAM (360 GB/s)
NPU Acceleration (TOPS)	38 TOPS	102 TOPS
Small models (3–7B)	Yes (Compatible)	Yes (Compatible)
8B models (Qwen3 8B)	Yes (Compatible)	Yes (Compatible)
Estimated 8B Generation Speed	~15.9 t/s	~47.8 t/s
Recommended Max Context	32k tokens	32k tokens
Power Consumption Envelope	12-22W	170-260W

The buying and sizing guides that explain the numbers above.