Hardware comparison
MacBook Air/Pro / Mac mini M4 (16GB) vs Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB) for local LLMs
How the two stack up for running open-source LLMs locally — memory, bandwidth, price, and how many of the 69 tracked models each one can run.
Scroll sideways to compare both machines. Keyboard: focus the table, then use the arrow keys. Metric names stay visible.
| Hardware | MacBook Air/Pro / Mac mini M4 (16GB) | Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 16.0 GB | 96.0 GB (better for this comparison) |
| Bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 1228 GB/s (better for this comparison) |
| Price (approx) | $1,199 (better for this comparison)Complete system | $5,499Complete system |
| LLMs it runs | 30 of 69 | 60 of 69 (better for this comparison) |
| Best model it runs | Mistral Small 3.2 24BQ2_K · estimated 8–12 tok/s | Gemma 4 31BQ8_0 · estimated 21–32 tok/s |
Both prices cover complete systems. Prices are approximate catalog estimates; check current configurations and prices before buying.
The recommended models and quants differ. These estimated speeds are not a like-for-like comparison. Estimates use 4,096 context tokens, llama.cpp and one stream.
The Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB) runs 30 more of the tracked models (60 vs 30), thanks to its 96.0 GB of memory. The Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB) has more memory bandwidth (1228 GB/s). Higher bandwidth can help generation speed, but model, quant, architecture and runtime also affect the estimates.