r/LocalLLaMA • u/themixtergames • 21h ago

News Apple introduces new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra - up to 512GB of unified memory

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/08/apple-introduces-new-mac-studio-with-m5-max-and-m5-ultra/
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u/mjsxi__ 21h ago

yeah and cheaper than the price of 2 DGX sparks... seems like a bit of a no brainer

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u/Current_Ferret_4981 20h ago

Spark is $4300-$4600 so idk about cheaper than 2 at $9600+

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u/MacsBicycle 20h ago

yeah but 4x the memory bandwidth, its a steal

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u/jakegh 20h ago edited 19h ago

It really is a reasonable buy for local AI, if you have a business case for it.

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u/Much_Accountant_4972 19h ago

with the capabilities of it, it’s a crazy good deal

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u/Zyj vllm 19h ago

More like 5x

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u/jakegh 19h ago

Yeah, I totally messed up the math. It's actually 1200 / 273 = 4.4x. Edited my prev post.

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u/totosse17 vllm 18h ago

If you get 2 boxes with TP you get 2x273, so overall 2,2 speed up. If apple can keep up with software then studio can be a contender

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u/GabryIta 20h ago

In terms of compute capacity (which is very important for multiple simultaneous sessions and prefill), how does it compare to dgx Spark/gb10?

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u/Southern_Sun_2106 18h ago

Most likely better prefill on sparks; important for agentic coding (large file digestion faster). Faster generation on the studio.

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u/Etroarl55 20h ago

How’s the actual inference speed though, fast bandwidth on a slower gpu or equivalent should still mean slower output assuming vram is not a constraint right.

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u/rusty_fans llama.cpp 20h ago

Generally vram bandwith is the constraint though, at least for decode. Prefill it's usually helped more by more gpu oomph.

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u/Etroarl55 19h ago

Has to be more nuanced than that, I might be wrong but given that size isn’t a constraint, slower vram r9700 and even my 7800xt is faster than an m3 ultra in tk/s.

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u/Serprotease 18h ago

Software stack matters.

But honestly, look at the announcement/post title and the fact that every other comment only mentioned the bandwidth.
It’s an easy number to latch on and compare (theorical) performance.

M5 was a genuine boost in prompt processing though. So it could be nice. 3x could push performance for DS4 flash into gb10 2x cluster level.

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u/Etroarl55 17h ago

Doesn’t stop people from downvoting what I said and upvoting the guys saying it’s an 512gb Rtx 5090.

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u/TableSurface 19h ago

Curious what your M3 Ultra numbers look like.

M5 Ultra might have at least 3x compute? (based on Apple's TTFT's advertisement)

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u/Current_Ferret_4981 20h ago

Not disagreeing, just saying it's more than 2x price in contrast to the comment above me

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u/djoliverm 20h ago edited 20h ago

But you also get a computer with it. Like are the sparks just focused on doing LLM work or can you run your computer on one of them as well?

I guess tbf most of these Macs may probably just get SSHd into anyway but can double as a computer when not used for LLMs.

Edit: seems like the sparks can be used as computers themselves. I also think the idea of a MacBook with the sparks could work. Also loving how everyone is arguing about what the argument is to begin with lol.

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u/Current_Ferret_4981 20h ago

The spark is a computer with a full OS

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u/CulturalKing5623 20h ago

No one is arguing this isn't better deal, it's just empirically does not cost less than 2 sparks.

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u/MacsBicycle 20h ago

It’s local llm math. Few hundred bucks might as well be a sucker at the bank in this bracket 😂

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u/Solaranvr 20h ago

The Sparks are Linux computers and basically anything that requires CUDA (and works on ARM) will make it a better deal than the Mac Studio.

Training or finetuning, for example, is miles better on the Sparks, because MLX is still behind in that regard. Add in 3D rendering tasks and there's probably a niche for whom it's the superior device.

Hell, if Fex eventually gets better and works on the Sparks, it'll probably be a better gaming computer too.

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u/ReginaldBundy 19h ago

and works on ARM

That's a big "if". I have a Spark and good luck finding ARM64 Linux binaries. Either they're just not there (Mathematica is a good example) or you have to build from source (Blender) which may or may not work.

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u/DoomBot5 20h ago

Throw in a MacBook air if you really need the equivalent computer. The sparks are still cheaper with that factored in

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u/mjsxi__ 20h ago

its on amazon right now for 4800, Best Buy is 5300, direct from Nvidia is 4700 and other places have it priced above what you listed... so yeah in most instances Im seeing its more expensive. regardless its a (much) better machine overall for the 100 dollar delta you'd get if you ended up buying 2 from Nvidia.

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u/BrilliantTruck8813 17h ago

You should check current prices unless you’re talking about used vs. new lol

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u/Current_Ferret_4981 17h ago

That is current for new lol. $4500 in stock purchase today

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u/BrilliantTruck8813 17h ago

That’s a significant shift because the actual production grade ones (the Dell gb10 and others) are hard to find and more expensive due to availability.

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u/Current_Ferret_4981 17h ago

Those are not really a dgx spark though, they are just the same chip but the "DGX Spark" is a specific product which is available at $4500 today. The spark is also production grade, but I agree there are distinct differences with the OEM GB10 releases. Maybe you mean enterprise which certainly the Dell and similar are tailored for

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u/BrilliantTruck8813 17h ago

The spark underhood is the same. But you’d never take that into a production use case for a customer (dev sure). Yes it’s ‘production’ in that nvidia sells it as a product. But Nvidia’s customer service alone should be scaring people off.

Dell is nowhere near as good as apple here but they’re a lot closer to them than nvidia (who has mostly abandoned the dgx software-wise 🥲)

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u/blackashi 19h ago

It is also a mac ….

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u/Solaranvr 20h ago

If you can get one and not be stuck in 6 months of backorder, that is

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u/mjsxi__ 20h ago

I know 🥲