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Apple Mac Studio M5 Max · 36GB: specifications and local LLMs

36 GB unified memory and 460 GB/s rated memory bandwidth. 460GB/s unified memory; mature Apple-silicon local-AI runtimes; Thunderbolt 5; 10GbE.

Catalog reviewed 2026-10-08. Listing evidence: 2026-10-02. Price and performance records retain their own dates.

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CPU, GPU, memory and storage

CPU: Apple M5 Max · 18-core · 18 cores / 18 threads
GPU: Apple M5 Max GPU · 32-core
Installed memory: 36 GB · Unified · 460 GB/s · Amazon.com ASIN listing
Unified memory, not separate VRAM: 36 GB shared with CPU and operating system
Memory bandwidth: 460 GB/s rated / theoretical · Apple-published memory bandwidth for the base 32-core-GPU M5 Max configuration.
Storage: 512 GB · Amazon.com ASIN listing
Operating system: macOS 27 (manufacturer)
Expansion: Four rear Thunderbolt 5 ports; two front USB-C ports; two USB-A ports; HDMI 2.1; 10GbE; Wi-Fi 7

Fixed 36GB memory and internal storage; no CUDA support; price is a manufacturer reference rather than a verified Amazon offer.

This is the base M5 Max configuration with 18 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, not the 40-core-GPU configuration. Local-model fit depends on quantization, context and runtime overhead.

The direct Amazon.com page identifies ASIN B0HGKSQMX6 as the M5 Max Mac Studio with 18-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB unified memory and 512GB storage. Apple technical and store pages match the exact configuration. Current seller, stock and checkout price can change.

What local models could Mac Studio M5 Max · 36GB run?

The 36 GB unified-memory pool gives a 25.2 GB initial weight budget using our 30% (minimum 2 GB) reserve. The CPU, GPU and OS share this capacity; software allocation limits still apply.

125 catalog files pass this size check. The largest is NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B at 24.574 GB (Q4_K_M). This is a catalog weight limit, not a measured maximum practical model size. Context length, runtime and architecture support can rule out a candidate.

Model snapshot: 14 October 2026. The examples below use MMLU-Pro; models without that score are not ranked in this table.

MMLU-Pro memory candidates · GB = 1 billion bytes. Published scores may use different settings or precision.
Model / quantization	Weights	Parameters	Score / 100	Score / GB	Budget left	Sources
Qwen3.5-4BQ4_K_M · Pareto choice	2.741 GB	4.206B	79.1	28.859	22.459 GB	Get weights Score source
MiniCPM5 2BQ4_K_M · Pareto choice	1.561 GB	2.517B	70.8	45.346	23.639 GB	Get weights Score source
Qwen3.5-9BQ4_K_M · Pareto choice	5.681 GB	9.653B	82.5	14.523	19.519 GB	Get weights Score source
LFM2.5 230MQ4_K_M · Pareto choice	0.153 GB	0.23B	20.25	132.002	25.047 GB	Get weights Score source
Qwen3.5-27BQ4_K_M · Pareto choice	16.741 GB	27.781B	86.1	5.143	8.459 GB	Get weights Score source

Choose this computer in the memory tool · Compare its memory tier

Published LLM performance

Local AI Stats has not tested this computer. No matching token-speed result is recorded for this configuration.

Advertised compute peaks and bandwidth are not tokens per second. Compare the same model, quantization, context and concurrency.

Price and value

ASIN: B0HGKSQMX6 · Amazon.com listing

$2,499 USD reference. Apple US launch price for the base M5 Max Mac Studio, published 22 September 2026: USD 2,499. Dated manufacturer reference, not an Amazon offer; tax and shipping may differ.

Reference price per installed-memory GB: $69.417. This measures cost per GB, not speed or total running cost.

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