Mac Studio M4 Max vs M5 Max, 36GB for local AI
Both hold 33 of the 50 current models here. The Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB costs $500 less. On Qwen3.8 27B, the strongest model both hold, the Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB is about 1.1× faster: 19 tok/s against 17, both estimated from memory bandwidth. The Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB pays for itself sooner, in 123 years against 149 years at 500k tokens a day. The Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB is the previous generation, so every figure here for it is priced at what it launched at rather than at a price you can pay today.
| Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB | Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1,999 | $2,499 |
| Memory | 36 GB | 36 GB |
| Usable by the GPU | 27 GB | 27 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 410 GB/s | 460 GB/s |
| Power under load | 145 W | 145 Wstand-in |
| Models that fit | 33 | 33 |
| Best model it runs | Qwen3.8 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Speed on that model | 17 tok/s estimated | 19 tok/s estimated |
| Pay-back on that model | Pays back in 123 years | Pays back in 149 years |
Run the numbers on the Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB · or the Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB
Jump to: What the newer chip buys · How much use it takes to pay back · Memory is not what separates them · The assumptions behind both columns
What the newer chip buys
These are the same machine a generation apart, in the same case and at the same memory size, so this is the upgrade question rather than a choice between two things on sale. What separates them is bandwidth: the M5 Max reads its memory at 460 GB/s where the M4 Max reads it at 410. Decoding reads the whole model out of memory for every token it writes, so that is the figure the speeds in the table follow. The M5 Max here is listed as 18-core CPU / 32-core GPU, against the M4 Max's 14-core CPU / 32-core GPU.
The two power figures are equal for a reason that is not about either machine: Apple has not published one for the M5 Max, so the data stands the M4 Max's published 145 W in for it and this page prices the electricity into both columns from that. Read it as a placeholder, not as a finding that the newer chip draws the same.
Apple stopped selling the Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB on 25 August 2026, so the $1,999 above is the price it launched at, and every figure on this page for it is priced at that. A used or refurbished one costs whatever it costs, and pay-back follows the price rather than the machine. Open the calculator on the Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB and put in what you would actually pay; the years move with it. Its own page has what the data records about buying one now.
How much use it takes to pay back
Everything above is at 500k tokens a day. Pay-back moves with how much you actually run, so here are both machines on Qwen3.8 27B, the strongest model both hold, at the five levels of use the calculator names. The Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB pays back sooner at every level of use, so this is not a choice that turns on how hard you work it.
| A day's use | Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB | Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB |
|---|---|---|
| 50ka few chats a day | 1,233 years | 1,494 years |
| 200klight assistant use | 308 years | 373 years |
| 1Ma moderate coding-assistant day | 62 years | 75 years |
| 4Mheavy coding with an agent | 15 years | 19 years |
| 20Magents running most of the day | 3.1 years | 3.7 years |
Run the Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB at 20M tokens a day · or the Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB
Memory is not what separates them
Every model on this list that fits one machine fits the other, and not only at 32k of context: across all 50 models the calculator counts, at every context from 4k to 256k, there is no model one holds and the other does not. Both leave 27 GB to the GPU. So the choice between them is speed, price and power, not what they can hold.
The Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB is also head to head with another computer: Mac mini M5 Pro, 64GB · MacBook Pro M5 (14-inch), 32GB. With the same box and the bigger chip: 48GB.
The assumptions behind both columns
Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Change any of it in the calculator.
More head to head: everything the Mac Studio M4 Max, 36GB runs · everything the Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB runs · every other match-up · the quickest pay-back at each level of use · every model against the frontier