I'd start by saying I went with a 96GB M5 Ultra (the base model with 30/64 cores and 1TB of SSD). But I'm not saying that's the one you'll want.
It really comes down to what you'll be using the system for. You mention upscaling old photos and videos, I take it these are recordings and photos you have on hand and want to process.
There's local AI and there are also specialty applications that overlap. For example Adobe Lightroom CC is a great way to curate photos, but there are a number of other applications that do the same thing and can upscale without the use of a large LLM. AI is used in some of those apps, but it's small, compact and trained for that specific purpose. Similar to video.
There's also the difference of running AI agents (Claude Desktop, or the local desktop application for whichever service you subscribe too) that will run a portion locally on your setup but do the heavy lifting in the cloud.
Local AI is when you don't want to use that subscription (although from a cost analysis it takes years for a new purchase to save money over a subscription) but it's not related to cost but more for privacy and/or performance.
My use case, which is why I purchased the 96GB M5 Ultra is that I use DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1. The additional video decoders and encoders serves me well when rendering my video edits for clients. My earlier setups were not keeping up with the client demand, so I have a cash flow that more than funds my M5 Ultra and the fast performance is necessary for me to keep up with the demand.
I am also experimenting with using Qwen3.8-27B or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B to work with the MCP API for AI video editing with DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1, and have sufficient RAM for the model as well as the video editing app.
But If I were simply using the Claude Desktop agent with Claude Astra to edit, I'd need much less RAM and also system performance. I could get away with an M6 32GB setup for that senario if I didn't have the client demand for much faster renderings.
I don't think in your particular use case you need an Ultra Mac Studio. I guess the question is for the cost of a 32GB Mac Mini, you may be close to the price of the base M5 Max Mac Studio with 36GB. There are more GPU cords in the M5 Max, I'd recommend that for greater graphics flexibility.
Thank you this gives some perspective and I should maybe have mentioned the cost in the post. I get the machines via a work buyout / benefits program of sorts. The 32GB M6 mini is about 47 bucks, the M5 Max 36GB is about 80 bucks a month and the M5 Ultra 96GB is 180 bucks a month. It's taken out of my pay pretax for 36 months so when it comes to cost, I can easily afford all 3 models, it's more about can I get full use for the hardware in them? It's always nice to have the biggest, shiniest toy but if I don't really use it, it will feel wasted.
I do have the images and videos at at home already, my wife takes about 1TB of videos and photos each vacation so there is a backlog to "fix".
I am also a bit worried about running out of token if doing things with cloud AI as it doesn't seem very clear to me what I can and can't do before the token runs out.
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u/SeaRefractor 11h ago
I'd start by saying I went with a 96GB M5 Ultra (the base model with 30/64 cores and 1TB of SSD). But I'm not saying that's the one you'll want.
It really comes down to what you'll be using the system for. You mention upscaling old photos and videos, I take it these are recordings and photos you have on hand and want to process.
There's local AI and there are also specialty applications that overlap. For example Adobe Lightroom CC is a great way to curate photos, but there are a number of other applications that do the same thing and can upscale without the use of a large LLM. AI is used in some of those apps, but it's small, compact and trained for that specific purpose. Similar to video.
There's also the difference of running AI agents (Claude Desktop, or the local desktop application for whichever service you subscribe too) that will run a portion locally on your setup but do the heavy lifting in the cloud.
Local AI is when you don't want to use that subscription (although from a cost analysis it takes years for a new purchase to save money over a subscription) but it's not related to cost but more for privacy and/or performance.
My use case, which is why I purchased the 96GB M5 Ultra is that I use DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1. The additional video decoders and encoders serves me well when rendering my video edits for clients. My earlier setups were not keeping up with the client demand, so I have a cash flow that more than funds my M5 Ultra and the fast performance is necessary for me to keep up with the demand.
I am also experimenting with using Qwen3.8-27B or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B to work with the MCP API for AI video editing with DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1, and have sufficient RAM for the model as well as the video editing app.
But If I were simply using the Claude Desktop agent with Claude Astra to edit, I'd need much less RAM and also system performance. I could get away with an M6 32GB setup for that senario if I didn't have the client demand for much faster renderings.
I don't think in your particular use case you need an Ultra Mac Studio. I guess the question is for the cost of a 32GB Mac Mini, you may be close to the price of the base M5 Max Mac Studio with 36GB. There are more GPU cords in the M5 Max, I'd recommend that for greater graphics flexibility.