Mac Studio, M5 Max, 36GB

512GB of storage, 460GB/s of memory bandwidth, and 33GB of unified memory left for a model once macOS has taken its share. It holds 14 of the 30 models we track.

Offers

checked 45 days ago

Applelist pricecheapest todayin stockchecked 45 days ago$2,499
Best Buyin stockchecked 45 days ago$2,499
The largest Mac Studio memory tier Best Buy carries.

No reseller undercuts Apple on this Config, so Apple direct is the price to beat.

Timing

Collecting price history — 0 of 90 days. No timing verdict yet.

Models it runs — 8K context

Llama-4-Behemoth—
Won't fit— headroom
DeepSeek-V4-Pro—
Won't fit— headroom
Kimi-K2-Instruct—
Won't fit— headroom
DeepSeek-V3—
Won't fit— headroom
DeepSeek-R1—
Won't fit— headroom
Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B-Instruct—
Won't fit— headroom
Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E—
Won't fit— headroom
GLM-4.6—
Won't fit— headroom
DeepSeek-V4-Flash—
Won't fit— headroom
Qwen3-235B-A22B—
Won't fit— headroom
MiniMax-M2—
Won't fit— headroom
Mistral-Large-2411—
Won't fit— headroom
gpt-oss-120b—
Won't fit— headroom
Llama-4-Scout-17B-16E—
Won't fit— headroom
Qwen3-Coder-Next—
Won't fit— headroom
Llama-3.3-70B—
Won't fit— headroom
Qwen3.5-35B-A3BQ6_K
Tight3GB headroomest. 93.5 tok/s
Qwen3-32BQ6_K
Tight3GB headroomest. 11.4 tok/s
Gemma-4-31BQ6_K
Fits5GB headroomest. 11.9 tok/s
Qwen3-30B-A3BQ6_K
Fits6GB headroomest. 85.0 tok/s
Gemma-3-27BQ8_0
Tight1GB headroomest. 10.4 tok/s
Qwen3.6-27BQ8_0
Tight3GB headroomest. 10.4 tok/s
Gemma-4-26B-A4BQ8_0
Fits5GB headroomest. 57.0 tok/s
Devstral-Small-2507Q8_0
Fits5GB headroomest. 11.7 tok/s
gpt-oss-20bQ8_0
Fits9GB headroomest. 60.1 tok/s
Phi-4BF16
Tight2GB headroomest. 10.7 tok/s
Gemma-4-12BBF16
Fits7GB headroomest. 12.5 tok/s
Qwen3-VL-8B-InstructBF16
Fits15GB headroomest. 18.7 tok/s
Gemma-3n-E4BBF16
Fits18GB headroomest. 37.4 tok/s
Qwen3-4BBF16
Fits23GB headroomest. 37.4 tok/s

Model	Best quant	Fit	Headroom	Est. speed
Llama-4-Behemoth	—	Won't fit	—	—
DeepSeek-V4-Pro	—	Won't fit	—	—
Kimi-K2-Instruct	—	Won't fit	—	—
DeepSeek-V3	—	Won't fit	—	—
DeepSeek-R1	—	Won't fit	—	—
Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B-Instruct	—	Won't fit	—	—
Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E	—	Won't fit	—	—
GLM-4.6	—	Won't fit	—	—
DeepSeek-V4-Flash	—	Won't fit	—	—
Qwen3-235B-A22B	—	Won't fit	—	—
MiniMax-M2	—	Won't fit	—	—
Mistral-Large-2411	—	Won't fit	—	—
gpt-oss-120b	—	Won't fit	—	—
Llama-4-Scout-17B-16E	—	Won't fit	—	—
Qwen3-Coder-Next	—	Won't fit	—	—
Llama-3.3-70B	—	Won't fit	—	—
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B	Q6_K	Tight	3GB	93.5 tok/s
Qwen3-32B	Q6_K	Tight	3GB	11.4 tok/s
Gemma-4-31B	Q6_K	Fits	5GB	11.9 tok/s
Qwen3-30B-A3B	Q6_K	Fits	6GB	85.0 tok/s
Gemma-3-27B	Q8_0	Tight	1GB	10.4 tok/s
Qwen3.6-27B	Q8_0	Tight	3GB	10.4 tok/s
Gemma-4-26B-A4B	Q8_0	Fits	5GB	57.0 tok/s
Devstral-Small-2507	Q8_0	Fits	5GB	11.7 tok/s
gpt-oss-20b	Q8_0	Fits	9GB	60.1 tok/s
Phi-4	BF16	Tight	2GB	10.7 tok/s
Gemma-4-12B	BF16	Fits	7GB	12.5 tok/s
Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct	BF16	Fits	15GB	18.7 tok/s
Gemma-3n-E4B	BF16	Fits	18GB	37.4 tok/s
Qwen3-4B	BF16	Fits	23GB	37.4 tok/s

Best quant is the highest-quality one that still loads with headroom. Every speed is an estimate; the formula is here.