It all comes down to one trade: RAM versus intelligence, over time.

Same live catalog and assumptions as the table: Score is the Artificial Analysis intelligence index, RAM is theoretical at 4-bit, Power is the Mac Studio setup 24/7 at $0.17/kWh, Launch is the OpenRouter listing date, and LIE (Local Intelligence Efficiency) is score ÷ GB of RAM — intelligence density, higher is better. “One Mac Mini” means 48 GB usable (75% of a 64 GB M4 Pro); “one Mac Studio” means 192 GB usable (75% of a 256 GB Studio, today’s top config). Models missing a charted value are left off.

A Doranalytics project.