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Mac Studio M5 Max (base)

Apple · Apple unified · as of 2026-10-12

Specs sourced · published reference runs · catalogue speeds mostly estimated
Mac Studio

  • Data checked: 2026-10-12. Review interval shown below. Prices need review after 30 days; specifications and benchmark collections after 90 days. Dates describe the recorded check, not a live retailer quote.

    • Verified Checked against the primary source (for example the model’s config.json on Hugging Face).
    • Sourced Taken from a cited source; not yet independently checked.
    • Estimate Calculated with the published formulas; not a measurement.
    • Sample Placeholder data for layout; not a real figure.
    • Not yet measured No public, citable score found for this benchmark yet. We never fill the gap with a guess.

    Verified metadata is not a measured performance result. Only cited runs matching model, device, quant and recorded context can replace speed estimates. Estimates assume one stream and F16 KV cache, with a ±25% uncertainty band. A published run applies only to its recorded runtime and conditions; missing settings are unknown.

    • llama-2-7b · mac-studio-m5-max
      llama.cpp (Metal) · Q4_0 · tg128
      Recorded 2026-10-12 · historical source record · repeat count unknownSourced
      Llama 2 7B Q4_0, llama-bench tg128, measured on the M5 Max 40-core GPU (614 GB/s) option, commit c1d0e7a. The base 32-core (460 GB/s) model will be slower. Run source

    Evidence labels · Freshness policy · Calculation methodology

36GB
memory, 27.0 GB usableSourced
460GB/s
memory bandwidthSourced
$2,499
price, USDSourced
8of 10
catalogue models fit at 8k

Quiet and small. The base memory size limits it to ~30B dense models at Q4.

Decode-speed ceiling for a model is 460 GB/s ÷ GB read per token. For a 16.6 GB file that is 28 tok/s; real runtimes reach roughly 45% of it. Why bandwidth is the limit.

In builds: Mac Studio M5 Max

See every model on this device

Specifications

Memory
36 GBSourcedBase configuration, apple.com, checked 2026-10-12. Source
Bandwidth
460 GB/sSourcedBase M5 Max (32-core GPU) is 460 GB/s; the 40-core GPU option is 614 GB/s. apple.com, checked 2026-10-12. Corrects the mockup value of 614. Source
FP16 dense compute
40 TFLOPSSampleSample FP16 dense compute; pending vendor-sheet citation.
Max continuous power (system)
480 WSourcedMaximum continuous power of the whole Mac Studio (apple.com); Apple publishes no chip TDP. Source
Load power at wall
150 WSampleSample wall power under load.
Price, USD
$2,499SourcedApple US store, base configuration. Checked 2026-10-12. Source
Price, CAD
CA$3,499SourcedApple Canada store, base configuration. Checked 2026-10-12. Source

Models that run

Default quant, single stream, 8k context. Fastest first; estimates are ±25% until measured.

Model
Quant
Memory
Verdict
Decode, tok/s
Max context
gpt-oss-20bMXFP412.9 GBFits90.4Estimate128k
Qwen3 30B-A3BQ4_K_M19.9 GBFits73.6Estimate32k
Llama 3.1 8B InstructQ4_K_M6.6 GBFits34.5Estimate128k
Qwen3 8BQ4_K_M6.8 GBFits33.2Estimate32k
Qwen3 14BQ4_K_M10.9 GBFits20.0Estimate32k
Mistral Small 3.2 24BQ4_K_M16.2 GBFits13.2Estimate64k
Gemma 3 27B ITQ4_K_M18.2 GBFits11.7Estimate64k
Qwen3 32BQ4_K_M22.5 GBFits9.4Estimate16k
Llama 3.3 70B InstructQ4_K_M45.8 GBDoes not fit——
gpt-oss-120bMXFP464.3 GBDoes not fit——

Published reference runs

Third-party llama.cpp measurements on this device, with conditions and source. Llama 2 7B Q4_0 runs are the community calibration test; they are not catalogue models.

Model
Quant
Date
Runtime · test
Decode, tok/s
Conditions
llama-2-7bQ4_02026-10-12llama.cpp (Metal) · tg128119.9SourcedLlama 2 7B Q4_0, llama-bench tg128, measured on the M5 Max 40-core GPU (614 GB/s) option, commit c1d0e7a. The base 32-core (460 GB/s) model will be slower. Source

Usable memory: discrete VRAM − 0.5 GB reserve; unified RAM × 0.75; fits when total ≤ 90% of usable (concept brief §7.3). Markdown · JSON