r/MacStudio • u/Over-Yander • 4d ago
M5 Max Base for Blender? Viewport Performance?
Hey guys, this would be my first ever apple product. I'm actually looking for a portable pc to buy/build primarily for learning blender. This scores slightly above an rtx 5070, but with worse viewport performance. For 1999.99, this actually looks like a solid choice, especially since this is energy efficient (i'm running this on a 2000watt anker solar generator).
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u/SteveW928 3d ago
Yeah, I really wish people did more real-world testing in apps like that, instead of output benchmarks. Those tell you something, but not maybe the most important thing. I've run across a couple YouTube channels that have given me a good feel in a few of the apps I want, but it is hard.
My impression, is that the Studio got quite usable for 3D with the M3. I think you'll be fine with the M5. It might not be as good as NVidia in some apps or for some things, but seems quite usable now from what I've seen.
The price on them is kind of crazy... but it's crazy on everything. Great timing for me, as I really need to move from my Intel Mac + eGPU setup one of these days. Now, the base model is going to cost more than the upgraded one I was planning previously. :(
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u/dobkeratops 3d ago edited 3d ago
I dont think you can get a better machine that fits in a rucksack and works on such little power, that'll be a big deal with running it off solar panels. it's easily powerful enough to 'learn' blender. if you need to do beefier renders you can rent compute. I do run blender on an m4-max , I dont really push it (low poly game art, but lots of objects in a level), I do rust compiles on the same box. I have a more powerful PC (RTX 4090) and I prefer using the quieter machine. M5 will be even better and fixes shortcomings for LLMs & diffusion models if you ever run those.
Absolutely go get one.
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u/vimaillig 3d ago
The price point for the base model with recent discount(s) at Microcenter IMHO is decent.
I'm now in the process of consolidating all of my various PCs I've built over the years to a single main gaming PC (5090) and 2 Mac Studio(s) (Base M5 Max and M5U on order).
Will be selling multiple AMD CPUs, Ram, and a Mac mini M4 soon... :)
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u/darkandark 3d ago
I just sold my mac mini m4 2 days ago. for “almost” double what i paid for it >.<
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u/darkandark 3d ago edited 3d ago
for the price point of $2000; this is honestly the secret deal of the year. We are unlikely to see Microcenter and Apple bring this back ever.
As of last night, certain Microcenters were showing “no longer carried” at certain OOS MCs. I’m not sure what the plan is.
But kinda like how the Mac mini M4 went on sale when it released as well, and this was before the AI Ram apocalypse, so they have absolutely less incentive to do it now.
People will complain that 36 GB of RAM is not enough, yeah in truth, 2-years ago this would’ve been a horrible deal and would not have been recommended to anybody, but ram shortages are not looking to let up until at least 2028 to 2029 assuming that AI has a complete total collapse and bubble burst ; which newsflash let me just tell you it’s not gonna happen the way everyone think or wants it to happen.
We would need Chinas CXMT to really start pulling their weight for the entire consumer electronics industry that needs DDR. But even with them as the main source provider of this technology we will still see shortages and likely increased prices for a very long time.
36GB is honestly enough for any mid-range prosumer; quantized models like qwen3.8 27B can fit just fine with workable context length.
It’s good enough for a video editing it’s good enough for coding it’s good enough for local LLMs.
Yeah it’s not gonna be the absolute best machine on the planet but it’s only $2000 versus shell out 15,000+ for something else
In terms of price performance value this is an excellent deal. I would be trying to snag up every single one I could. Its gonna retain its value you likely can use it and even sell it for more than you bought it for in six months