Mac Studio · M5 Max · 40 GPU cores

Which models fit this Mac?

36 GiB model/runtime budget after 12 GiB system allowance.

The allowance is editable. Lowering it does not raise macOS’s actual Metal working-set limit. Four sample models, Q4_K_M weights, FP16 KV, one request and 2 GiB runtime reserve. Models above 70B are not assessed here.

How fast does it generate tokens?

Changing the memory/context selector changes estimates only. Published references keep their own model, quantization and scope; no exact-configuration speed is implied.

Whole-Mac purchase references.

No exact configured purchase quote collected. Confirm the GPU cores, memory, SSD, seller, condition, tax and stock before comparing prices.

Check the official configurations ↗

Rental availability

No matching Mac cloud-compute quote collected. Hardware financing and equipment leases are not GPU-hour rental rates.

Compare the whole-machine budget with rented compute and APIs →

Run the selected model locally.

For the GGUF files used in this estimate, llama.cpp provides a Metal backend on Apple Silicon. Download the exact model artifact linked in the capacity cards, set an explicit context, and confirm GPU/Metal execution and actual memory use in the runtime logs. This page does not claim a tested installation on this machine.

MLX is another Apple Silicon runtime path. Its model checkpoints, quantization and memory allocations differ; the GGUF estimates above are not measurements of an MLX checkpoint. Recheck the chosen artifact rather than carrying over a GGUF file size.

llama.cpp build and Metal instructions ↗ · MLX-LM installation and model usage ↗

Hardware identity & sources.

Apple designs the integrated GPU in this M5 Max system. Unified memory is shared with the CPU and system; it is not dedicated VRAM. GPU core count and selected memory options come from the linked specification.

Official Apple specifications ↗ · checked 7 Nov 2026.

Hardware and price evidence → · Historical chip benchmark evidence →

Unified memory needs its own budget.

These Macs contain an integrated Apple GPU. CPU, GPU, macOS and other apps share one memory pool. We reserve 25% (at least 4 GiB) for the system and other apps, then add exact Q4_K_M weight-file bytes, FP16 KV cache and 2 GiB for the inference runtime. The system allowance is our editable planning assumption, not a measured free-memory value or a universal macOS GPU limit.

Nominal Apple GB labels are treated as GiB for this scenario. Context includes input and output tokens; one request, weights kept in memory. Passing the estimate is a shortlist, not a verified deployment. The four-model sample stops at 70B; a 70B result is not a ceiling on a large Mac.

Actual Metal working-set limits, prefill workspace, app usage, runtime allocations and model support may change the result. Swapping to SSD can make a model load while becoming too slow for the intended task. Memory bandwidth alone cannot establish output speed.

Compare another configuration.

Apple · 36 GB

Mac Studio · M5 Max · 32 GPU cores →

32 GPU cores

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Mac Studio · M5 Ultra · 64 GPU cores →

64 GPU cores

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Mac Studio · M5 Ultra · 80 GPU cores →

80 GPU cores

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