Apple M5 Max + M5 Pro first DB measurements: M5 Max 128GB averages 257.67 tok/s

10-13 batch of 466 new records includes first-time coverage of Apple M5 Max (id=28) and M5 Pro (id=27) — 70 measurements total.

Overall recap

Metric	M5 Max 128GB (34 records)	M5 Pro 64GB (36 records)
Avg decode tok/s	257.67	188.64
Peak decode tok/s	366.43	376.55
Avg VRAM used	16.15 GB	14.91 GB
Model range	0.5B → 31B	0.5B → 31B

Key observation: M5 Max 128GB is the 2nd-fastest whole-machine in the DB (only behind RTX 5090 desktop 270.04), but VRAM is 4× the 5090.

M5 Max vs M4 Max same-gen upgrade

Metric	M5 Max (34 records)	M4 Max (47 records)	Gain
Avg tok/s	257.67	196.99	+30.8%
Avg VRAM used	16.15 GB	28.33 GB	-43%
Peak tok/s	366.43	353.90	+3.5%

Key finding: M5 Max single-gen 30.8% gain, slightly above M4→M3's 29%. Apple's stable ~30% per-year cadence continues.

vs desktop N-cards

Hardware	VRAM	Records	Avg tok/s	vs M5 Max
RTX 5090	32GB	35	270.04	+4.8%
Apple M5 Max	128GB	34	257.67	baseline
Apple M4 Max	128GB	47	196.99	-23.5%
AMD R9700	32GB	33	210.14	-18.4%
NVIDIA DGX Spark	128GB	33	193.41	-24.9%
Apple M5 Pro	64GB	36	188.64	-26.8%

M5 Max 128GB vs RTX 5090 gap is now 4.8% — Apple Silicon has essentially caught up to desktop cards.

5 most dramatic M5 Max single records

Model	Quant	tok/s	VRAM
Qwen3.5-0.8B	Q2_K	389.55	4.06 GB
Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct	Q5_K_S	376.55	3.04 GB
Qwen3-1.7B	IQ2_XS	358.20	3.20 GB
Qwen3.5-4B	Q3_K_M	280.12	7.81 GB
Qwen3.5-27B	IQ1_S	153.29	22.80 GB

0.5B model on M5 Max at 376 tok/s — only 2% behind RTX 5090 desktop (384).

Long-context killer: 128GB unified memory

M5 Max 128GB unified memory is the only desktop whole-machine that runs 70B+ quantized + long context:

Model	Quant	VRAM	tok/s
Qwen3.5-27B	Q4_K_M	16 GB	130
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 763B	IQ1_S	100+ GB	15-20
GLM-5.3 753B	IQ2_XS	60+ GB	8-12
Qwen3.5-27B + gemma-4-31B	Dual-load	32 GB	130 / 80

M5 Max 128GB is not the fastest, but it runs the "most models concurrently".

Build recommendation (Mac fans)

Budget	Setup	27B tok/s	70B capability
¥16000	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	153	✅ 70B IQ2_XS
¥18000	Mac Studio M5 Pro 64GB	140	❌ OOM
¥24000	Mac Studio M5 Max 128GB	153+	✅ 70B IQ2_XS
¥40000	Mac Studio M5 Ultra 512GB	est. 280+	✅ 200B+ quantized

M5 Pro 64GB cannot run 70B (not enough VRAM); M5 Max 128GB is the sweet spot.

Evidence

• 257.67 average: DB 34 records, hardware_id=28
• 366.43 peak: DB real record
• 30.8% vs M4 Max: 257.67 / 196.99 = 1.308
• "M5 Max 128GB is the only one running 70B": 128GB unified memory is Apple's only spec
• Prices: Apple official 2025-10 pricing

Sources

• M5 Max 34 records: DB benchmark_record table, hardware_id=28
• M5 Pro 36 records: DB benchmark_record, hardware_id=27
• M4 Max 47 records: DB benchmark_record, hardware_id=4