DGX Spark crushes Strix Halo on prompt processing (1,723 vs 339 tok/s) but token generation is nearly even.

June local-inference benchmarks across the 128GB class put NVIDIA's DGX Spark ($4k), AMD's Strix Halo / Ryzen AI Max+ 395 ($2 to 3k), and the M5 Max 128GB (~$5k) head to head (Hardware Corner). Prompt processing favors CUDA hard. But token generation lands at a surprisingly close 34 to 38 tok/s on 120B models. Strix Halo's load-bearing number is ~180 GB/s real usable bandwidth, and the community runtime is Vulkan via llama.cpp, not ROCm. Translation: prompt-heavy agentic loops want a CUDA box, but chat-style generation on the cheaper AMD option is genuinely competitive. Buy for your actual workload shape, not the headline number.