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Apple · Local AI machine

Apple Mac Studio (M5 Max, 36 GB)

Apple machine: Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU, 32-core GPU), 36 GB memory, 27 GB for the GPU, 460 GB/s memory speed.

80.4Score

  • #18 of 41 ranked
  • #7 of 10 Apple machines

Why this score

The score adds up these parts. Each part has a weight. A part counts as the average of its sources, pulled toward 80 when there are few sources.

  1. AI power

    50% weightcounts as 77.8

    Average of 2 sources: 76.7

  2. Experts

    30% weightcounts as 85.0

    Average of 3 sources: 86.7

  3. Users

    20% weightcounts as 80.0

    No sources found yet. No data yet. This part counts as 80.

Good: 3 reviews and buyer ratings.

80 is the field average. A part counts as 80 + (average − 80) × N ÷ (N + 1), where N is its number of sources. One source counts half of the gap from 80. No sources count as 80.

Price

€2999 at Apple Store Österreich · Austrian shop

Apple AT list price, M5 Max 18-core CPU / 32-core GPU, 36 GB, 512 GB SSD (MHL64ZD/A). Geizhals Austria lowest offer for the same config is EUR 2,747.88 (BA-Computer, Vienna, ships in 1-3 working days, plus EUR 7.67 shipping).

Prices checked 8 Oct 2026.

Specs

Chip
Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU, 32-core GPU)
CPU
18 cores (6 Super + 12 Performance)
Memory
36 GB
GPU memory
27 GBmacOS default Metal GPU memory cap of about 75% of unified memory (community-documented in devnote-override-macos-metal-vram-cap and mlx-lm issue 883; Apple publishes no share). 75% x 36 GB = 27 GB. Raising the cap with sysctl iogpu.wired_limit_mb works but is unsupported by Apple, so it is not applied. The source states one default share (about 75%) for every memory size and documents no lower share for small Macs, so 75% is used for every Mac.
Memory speed
460 GB/s
FP16 TFLOPS
—
NPU
—
OS
macOS
Software
MLX
Ethernet
10 Gbit/s
Thunderbolt / USB4
TB5
QSFP port
No
Idle power
7 W
Load power
200 W
Noise
—
Volume
3.7 L
Weight
2.7 kg
SSD
512 GB
Release
2026-09

Measured

No measured results found yet.

Notes

Best-value Apple box for local AI: 614 GB/s with 48-128 GB, so 70B-class dense models fit from 64 GB. The 36 GB base has only 460 GB/s and about 27 GB of default GPU memory, and Apple's memory upgrades are expensive.

Apple's Mac Studio spec page is inconsistent on the M5 Max GPU (32-core in the chip section, 40-core in the options); the AT buy page settles it: 36 GB comes only with the 32-core GPU, 48 GB and up only with the 40-core GPU. Power numbers are Apple's own (36 GB config), not reviewed. Macworld's score comes from a search-result summary of its review; AppleInsider's and PetaPixel's from search excerpts of the reviews. oMLX community speed runs on the M5 Max chip were dropped: they do not name the device and predate this Mac Studio. Prices are Apple AT list prices: the lower Geizhals offers in each price note were not linked in the research, and Geizhals could not be read again.

More reading:macdailynews.commacwelt.degeekculture.cobgr.com

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See it in the Local AI Index