Hardware comparison
MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) vs Intel Arc B580 (12GB) 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 Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) | Intel Arc B580 (12GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 36.0 GB (better for this comparison) | 12.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 460 GB/s (better for this comparison) | 456 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $2,499Complete system | $289GPU only · host PC required, sold separately |
| LLMs it runs | 51 of 69 (better for this comparison) | 30 of 69 |
| Best model it runs | Gemma 4 31BQ4_K_M · estimated 15–22 tok/s | Mistral Small 3.2 24BQ2_K · estimated 32–48 tok/s |
These prices cover different purchases: a GPU card excludes its required host PC; a complete system includes the machine. No price winner is marked. 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 MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) runs 21 more of the tracked models (51 vs 30), thanks to its 36.0 GB of memory. The MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) has more memory bandwidth (460 GB/s). Higher bandwidth can help generation speed, but model, quant, architecture and runtime also affect the estimates.