Mac mini M6, 32GB vs AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB for local AI
The Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB holds 34 of the 50 current models here, and the Mac mini M6, 32GB holds 23. They cost the same, though the Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB is priced as the card alone, without the PC around it. On Qwen3.8 27B, the strongest model both hold, the Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB is about 4.3× faster: 30 tok/s against 6.9, both estimated from memory bandwidth. The Mac mini M6, 32GB pays for itself sooner, in 82 years against 84 years at 500k tokens a day.
| Mac mini M6, 32GB | AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1,299 | $1,299card only |
| Memory | 32 GB | 32 GB |
| Usable by the GPU | 21 GB | 31 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 170 GB/s | 640 GB/s |
| Power under load | 65 Wstand-in | 300 W |
| Models that fit | 23 | 34 |
| Best model it runs | Qwen3.8 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Speed on that model | 6.9 tok/s estimated | 30 tok/s estimated |
| Pay-back on that model | Pays back in 82 years | Pays back in 84 years |
The 65 W beside the Mac mini M6, 32GB is a stand-in, not a figure for that machine: the data borrows it from the nearest hardware it does have, and the machine's own page names which and why. So the two figures above are not like for like, and the electricity in its pay-back here is priced from a borrowed number.
Run the numbers on the Mac mini M6, 32GB · or the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB
Jump to: The same money, two different machines · How much use it takes to pay back · What the extra memory buys · The assumptions behind both columns
The same money, two different machines
These two cost the same: $1,299 for the Mac mini M6, 32GB and $1,299 for the Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB, card only. Apple makes one and AMD the other. Every other head-to-head on this site holds a piece of the hardware equal and asks what the price gap buys. This one holds the price, so the row that usually carries the answer is the row the two machines agree on, and everything under it is what the same money buys twice. The two are less equal than they look: the Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB's price buys the card alone, so read its column as the cost of the part that does the work on top of a machine you already own.
How much use it takes to pay back
Everything above is at 500k tokens a day. Pay-back moves with how much you actually run, so here are both machines on Qwen3.8 27B, the strongest model both hold, at the five levels of use the calculator names. The Mac mini M6, 32GB pays back sooner at every level up to 4M tokens a day. Above that the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB does.
| A day's use | Mac mini M6, 32GB | AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB |
|---|---|---|
| 50ka few chats a day | 821 years | 836 years |
| 200klight assistant use | 205 years | 209 years |
| 1Ma moderate coding-assistant day | 41 years | 42 years |
| 4Mheavy coding with an agent | 10 years | 10 years |
| 20Magents running most of the day | 4.3 yearsits ceiling | 2.1 years |
On Qwen3.8 27B the Mac mini M6, 32GB generates at most 9.47M tokens a day, so its figure at 20M tokens a day is for the most it can do, not for the whole of what was asked.
Run the Mac mini M6, 32GB at 20M tokens a day · or the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB
What the extra memory buys
The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB holds 11 models the Mac mini M6, 32GB cannot at 32k of context. The strongest of them are what the difference in memory actually buys.
| Model | Weights | Needs at 32k | On the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9BHaiku-class | 22 GB | 22 GB | 114 tok/s estimated |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3BHaiku-class | 22 GB | 23 GB | 132 tok/s estimated |
| Gemma 4 31B itHaiku-class | 20 GB | 23 GB | 24 tok/s estimated |
| Granite 4.2 30BHaiku-class | 18 GB | 26 GB | 21 tok/s estimated |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3BBelow every hosted tier | 25 GB | 26 GB | 127 tok/s estimated |
| Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3BBelow every hosted tier | 19 GB | 22 GB | 64 tok/s estimated |
5 more, on the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB page.
The extra memory buys context as well. Of the 23 current models both machines hold at 32k, 8 run to a longer window on the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB: the weights are a fixed size and the KV cache is not, so what the weights leave spare is what a longer context grows into. Qwen3.6 27B reaches 128k there against 32k on the Mac mini M6, 32GB, each the longest window the calculator offers that the machine still holds it at.
The Mac mini M6, 32GB is also head to head with another computer: MacBook Air M5 (13-inch), 16GB · Framework Desktop, 32GB. With the same machine at another memory size: 16GB · 24GB. With the machine it replaced: Mac mini M4, 32GB.
The Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB is also head to head with another card: RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, 96GB · GeForce RTX 5090, 32GB · GeForce RTX 4090, 24GB · GeForce RTX 3090, 24GB · GeForce RTX 4080, 16GB · GeForce RTX 3060, 12GB. With a complete computer: Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB · Mac Studio M5 Max, 128GB · DGX Spark, 128GB · GMKtec EVO-X2, 128GB · MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB · MacBook Pro M5 Pro (16-inch), 64GB.
The assumptions behind both columns
Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. The Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB is priced as the card alone, so add the PC around it before comparing it with a complete computer. All seven cards here are ranked by what each one holds. Change any of it in the calculator.
More head to head: everything the Mac mini M6, 32GB runs · everything the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB runs · every other match-up · the quickest pay-back at each level of use · every model against the frontier