M2 Max vs M4 Max

Side-by-side LLM inference benchmarks: M2 Max versus M4 Max across 3 models. Evidence-backed tok/s measurements with confidence metadata.

3Shared models

M4 MaxWins 3 of 3

19%Avg speed advantage

6Measurements used

M4 Max is faster in 3 of 3 models tested. Average advantage: 19%.

Model-by-model comparison

Each row shows the fastest published generation speed for that model on each chip family. Higher tok/s is better. Evidence badges show data provenance.

Model	M2 Max	M4 Max	Difference	Evidence
llama-3-1-8b-instruct	46.4 tok/s Q4_K_M	55.1 tok/s Q4_K_M	19% M4 Max	CommunityCommunity
llama-3-2-1b-instruct	153.0 tok/s Q4_K_M	182.6 tok/s Q4_K_M	19% M4 Max	CommunityCommunity
qwen-2-5-14b-instruct	25.2 tok/s Q4_K_M	30.1 tok/s Q4_K_M	19% M4 Max	CommunityCommunity

Data confidence

This comparison uses 6 measurements. 6 are community-reported.

All numbers reflect generation speed (tok/s) at the best available quantization for each side. Quantization levels may differ between families. Where quant levels differ, the comparison shows each chip at its measured best — not a controlled variable.

Chip variants in this comparison

M2 Max

M2 Max 30 core gpu M2 Max 38 core gpu

M4 Max

M4 Max M4 Max 24 core gpu M4 Max 32 core gpu M4 Max 40 core gpu M4 Max gpu Count Not Published

Data

benchmarks.json — full dataset · benchmarks.csv — CSV export

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