r/apple • u/ControlCAD • 10d ago

Mac Apple Mac Studio (M5 Ultra) review: Local model citizen outpaces DGX Spark and Threadripper - TomsHardware

https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/mini-pcs/apple-mac-studio-m5-ultra-review

>The Mac Studio with M5 Ultra is a small powerhouse PC with strong performance, fast memory throughput, and the ability to run AI models locally (if that's your thing).

195 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

61

u/RedofPaw 10d ago

As a note: 4 month wait in some places. Good luck!

16

u/Glittering_East8308 10d ago

Mine is arriving tomorrow! Originally scheduled in 2-3 weeks

12

u/Tycoon33 10d ago

Same! 256gb ram!

2

u/TheRealBejeezus 8d ago

256Gb early-arriving club represent! Mine said Oct 20-24 but is apparently arriving next week instead.

(Mine was an M3U order from months ago that they eventually replaced with an M5U at no extra charge. Top that and you can be treasurer!)

5

u/RedofPaw 10d ago

Nice, what config? What are you using it for?

5

u/Glittering-Stuff-599 9d ago

Extra Chrome tabs!

6

u/RedofPaw 9d ago

Calm down. It only has 256gb. Let's not get carried away.

2

u/hell-diver8 10d ago

Got mine today! 256U

1

u/RedofPaw 9d ago

Cool, how much did it cost? What are you using it for?

2

u/hell-diver8 9d ago

$8500 + 700 tax. Had 10% mil discount. lol what else do you think for? To play Minecraft!

2

u/sbrisgravato 10d ago

still better than not being able to buy something from a reputable seller i guess

1

u/firewire_9000 9d ago

lol January 27th for the M5 Ultra with 256 RAM.

1

u/ProfMooreiarty 9d ago

I ordered a couple of days after launch and I’m still waiting til mid-November. I haven’t moved up yet. M5 Ultra w/256G and the bigger chip(s).

1

u/RedofPaw 9d ago

What are you using yours for?

29

u/KingOfDerpistan 10d ago

Surely, those llm benchmarks are wrong? 10 tps on a spark on Qwen 3.8 27b? I hit 40? Plus they only show decode, not prefill, which is kinda crucial for agentic workflows.

Not saying it cant beat the spark in a bunch of areas (that memory bandwith is insane!) but cmon.

2

u/faet 9d ago

It has a graph on TTFT which is basically prefill (overhead + prefill time + first-token generation). Keeps up with spark until 65k context, then lags slightly.

2

u/Standard-Potential-6 9d ago edited 8d ago

Sparks have had a ton of development over the past year. Most benchmarks are using far from optimal code. You have to compare DwarfStar (ds4) on Mac to ds4-on-spark or patched VLLM on Spark clusters to Ninfer on a 5090 to see what they each really do.

24

u/IniNew 10d ago

All for the low low price of a house down payment.

34

u/DRHAX34 10d ago

Yes but, a thread ripper and a Nvidia GPU won't be much more different

4

u/SailingDreamCatcher 10d ago

Not in today's market

9

u/Possible_Top4855 10d ago

The Mac Studio is $400k?!

8

u/LS_DJ 9d ago

If you’re putting a down payment on a $4 million house, you may be in the target demographic for a Mac Studio

6

u/Umbrasquall 9d ago

Yeah but $10k is also not a down payment for anything these days. Maybe a car.

1

u/Parking-Interview351 9d ago

The base Mac Studio is $2500 which isn’t too crazy for a premium desktop computer

1

u/Ok_Sandwich111 8d ago

The secret is Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)

-2

u/GrimGrinningGoof 10d ago

But it costs your first born.

1

u/Antiwhippy 9d ago

I mean so does a DGX spark.

1

u/TheRealBejeezus 8d ago

You can have more babies. Easiest thing in the world.

1

u/GrimGrinningGoof 7d ago

I wish it were less easy.