The Grid
Every configuration Apple and NVIDIA sell today that is worth buying to hold a model, ranked by what a gigabyte of memory costs. Pick the model you mean to run and the Fit, headroom and speed columns recompute for it.
- Configs
- 15
- Models
- 11
- Chips
- 6
- Cheapest entry
- $1,099
The Grid — 15 Configs
Vendor prices, checked 6 hours ago- Won't fit−24GB headroom$37/GB
- Fits103GB headroomest. 45.2 tok/s$37/GB
- Won't fit−25GB headroom$40/GB
- Mac mini, M5 Pro, 64GB$2,899Won't fit−86GB headroom$45/GB
- Mac mini, M6, 32GB$1,499Won't fit−116GB headroom$47/GB
- Mac mini, M5 Pro, 48GB$2,499Won't fit−100GB headroom$52/GB
- Mac mini, M6, 24GB$1,299Won't fit−124GB headroom$54/GB
- Mac Studio, M5 Max, 64GB$3,499Won't fit−86GB headroom$55/GB
- Won't fit−56GB headroom$57/GB
- Mac Studio, M5 Max, 48GB$3,099Won't fit−100GB headroom$65/GB
- Mac mini, M6, 16GB$1,099Won't fit−132GB headroom$69/GB
- Mac Studio, M5 Max, 36GB$2,499Won't fit−112GB headroom$69/GB
- Mac mini, M5 Pro, 24GB$1,699Won't fit−124GB headroom$71/GB
- GeForce RTX 5090, 32GB$5,699.99+hostWon't fit−114GB headroom$178/GB
- Fits359GB headroomest. 45.2 tok/s—
| Config | Fit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DGX Spark, GB10 Grace Blackwell | 128GB | 273GB/s | $4,699 | $37 | Won't fit | −24GB | — |
| Mac Studio, M5 Ultra | 256GB | 1.2TB/s | $9,499 | $37 | Fits | 103GB | 45.2 tok/s |
| Mac Studio, M5 Max | 128GB | 614GB/s | $5,099 | $40 | Won't fit | −25GB | — |
| Mac mini, M5 Pro | 64GB | 307GB/s | $2,899 | $45 | Won't fit | −86GB | — |
| Mac mini, M6 | 32GB | 170GB/s | $1,499 | $47 | Won't fit | −116GB | — |
| Mac mini, M5 Pro | 48GB | 307GB/s | $2,499 | $52 | Won't fit | −100GB | — |
| Mac mini, M6 | 24GB | 170GB/s | $1,299 | $54 | Won't fit | −124GB | — |
| Mac Studio, M5 Max | 64GB | 614GB/s | $3,499 | $55 | Won't fit | −86GB | — |
| Mac Studio, M5 Ultra | 96GB | 1.2TB/s | $5,499 | $57 | Won't fit | −56GB | — |
| Mac Studio, M5 Max | 48GB | 614GB/s | $3,099 | $65 | Won't fit | −100GB | — |
| Mac mini, M6 | 16GB | 170GB/s | $1,099 | $69 | Won't fit | −132GB | — |
| Mac Studio, M5 Max | 36GB | 614GB/s | $2,499 | $69 | Won't fit | −112GB | — |
| Mac mini, M5 Pro | 24GB | 307GB/s | $1,699 | $71 | Won't fit | −124GB | — |
| GeForce RTX 5090 | 32GB | 1.8TB/s | $5,699.99+host | $178 | Won't fit | −114GB | — |
| Mac Studio, M5 Ultra | 512GB | 1.2TB/s | not published | — | Fits | 359GB | 45.2 tok/s |
GeForce RTX 5090 is a card, not a computer: its price is the US street median plus $1,000 for the minimum host machine. NVIDIA's $1,999 MSRP is not a price anyone pays.
Fit, headroom and speed are computed for Qwen3-235B-A22B at Q4_K_M, 8K context. Open its Model page for the offers and the arithmetic.
What changed
The Grid is no longer Apple-only. NVIDIA DGX Spark, 128GB, and the GeForce RTX 5090, 32GB, joined it on 27 August 2026. A card cannot run a model on its own, so the 5090 is quoted with the minimum host machine included, and its price is the US street median rather than the $1,999 MSRP nobody sells at.
Apple refreshed both lines on 25 August 2026. Mac mini moved to M6 and M5 Pro; Mac Studio moved to M5 Max and M5 Ultra. The M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max and M3 Ultra machines are no longer sold new, so they left the Grid. The 512GB M5 Ultra ships in late October and Apple has not published its price, so we do not print one.
Bandwidth per chip, each vendor’s published figure: M6 170GB/s, M5 Pro 307GB/s, M5 Max 614GB/s, M5 Ultra 1.2TB/s, GB10 Grace Blackwell 273GB/s, RTX 5090 1.8TB/s. Decode is bandwidth-bound, which is why the Ultra is worth its price for large models and wasted on small ones.
Start from a model instead
- Qwen3-235B-A22B235B, Q4_K_M
- DeepSeek-V3671B, Q4_K_M
- Llama-3.3-70B70B, Q4_K_M
- gpt-oss-120b117B, Q4_K_M
- Mistral-Large-2411123B, Q4_K_M
- Llama-4-Scout-17B-16E109B, Q4_K_M
Prices come from each vendor’s own store, apple.com and marketplace.nvidia.com, stamped with a checked-at time. Reseller offers from Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Best Buy and Newegg land as the founder’s accounts open; the ranking is by price and never by payout.