GPU comparison
MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) vs NVIDIA RTX 5060 (8GB) for local LLMs
How the two stack up for running open-source LLMs locally — memory, bandwidth, price, and how many of the 64 tracked models each one can run.
| MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) | NVIDIA RTX 5060 (8GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 36.0 GB | 8.0 GB |
| Bandwidth | 460 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Price (approx) | $2,499 | $449 |
| LLMs it runs | 47 of 64 | 22 of 64 |
| Best model it runs | Qwen3.8 27B · 13–20 tok/s | Gemma 4 12B · 55–83 tok/s |
The MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) runs 25 more of the tracked models (47 vs 22), thanks to its 36.0 GB of memory. The MacBook Pro / Mac Studio M5 Max (36GB) has more memory bandwidth (460 GB/s), so it generates tokens faster at the same model and quant.