Local AI Deals

Mac Studio, M5 Max, 64GB vs Mac Studio, M5 Ultra, 96GB

Both hold Gemma-3-27B at Q4_K_M. Mac Studio, M5 Ultra, 96GB decodes an est. 47.8 tok/s against 24.5, and costs $2,000 more — $85.59.333158309267674 per extra token per second. Worth it if you read the output as it arrives; not if you queue jobs.

For Gemma-3-27B at Q4_K_MMac Studio 64GBMac Studio 96GB
Fit
Fits
Fits
Headroom
39GB
69GB
Est. speed
24.5 tok/s
47.8 tok/s
Cheapest today
$3,499 at Apple
$5,499 at Apple
Per GB of memory
$55
$57
Memory
64GB unified memory
96GB unified memory
Usable for a model
59GB
88GB
Memory bandwidth
614GB/s
1.2TB/s
Storage
512GB
1TB
Lowest recorded
$3,499 in 2d
$5,499 in 2d

Fit, headroom and speed are computed from each vendor’s published bandwidth and the model’s own size at 8K context. Prices are the cheapest listing we could read on each seller’s page. The arithmetic is here.

Where they actually differ

Every model we track at Q4_K_M. The rows where the two boxes agree are dimmed, because they are not what you are choosing between.