The Mac Studio M5 Max generates text with a local model 77 to 86 percent faster than the Mac mini M5 Pro and renders 77 percent faster in Blender. On the CPU they are closer: 17 percent apart in Blender's CPU test. At launch the Mac mini M5 Pro was $1,699 with 24GB and the Mac Studio M5 Max $2,499 with 36GB.

Mac mini M5 Pro and Mac Studio M5 Max

Mac mini M5 ProMac Studio M5 Max
Price$1,699Apple US price, 15-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB / 512GB$2,499Apple US price, 32-core GPU, 36GB / 512GB
ChipApple M5 ProApple M5 Max
CPU cores15 (5 super, 10 performance); 18 optional18 (6 super, 12 performance)
GPU cores1632 (40 optional)
Memory (base)24 GB36 GB
Geekbench 6 CPUSingle-core, points4,2944,355†
Geekbench 6 CPUMulti-core, points29,10430,384†
Geekbench 6 GPUMetal, points142,708238,904†
Local LLM (llama.cpp / Ollama)tg128 Llama 2 7B Q4_0, tok/s67.6120
Local LLM (llama.cpp / Ollama)pp512 Llama 2 7B Q4_0, tok/s1,3403,220
Blender Benchmarksamples/min3,6436,462
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Figures as published by Blender Open Data (Oct 19, 2026), Macworld (Sep 21, 2026), The Verge (Sep 21, 2026), llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub) (Oct 19, 2026). † From another publication than the rest of its row, so not a like-for-like test. The best figure is marked where a row is all one source.

Compare every benchmark side by side

The figures, one lab per row

Every row is one source's figures for both: Blender Open Data and llama.cpp's community benchmarks.

Mac mini M5 Pro vs Mac Studio M5 Max, same test, same lab

5 rows
Test and settingMac mini M5 ProMac Studio M5 MaxAheadLab
llama.cpp, Llama 2 7B Q4_0, prompt processing (tok/s)1,3403,220Mac Studio M5 Max by 140%llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub)
llama.cpp, Llama 2 7B Q4_0, text generation (tok/s)67.6119.9Mac Studio M5 Max by 77%llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub)
llama.cpp, Llama 2 7B Q8_0, text generation (tok/s)38.972.4Mac Studio M5 Max by 86%llama.cpp community benchmarks (GitHub)
Blender Benchmark (samples/min)3,6436,462Mac Studio M5 Max by 77%Blender Open Data
Blender Benchmark, CPU (samples/min)500.3584.7Mac Studio M5 Max by 17%Blender Open Data

A row is here only when the same publication ran the same test on both. Launch prices are the makers' suggested prices; check the shop for today's.

Free to reuse with credit and a link to this page (CC BY 4.0).

What the extra money buys

Memory bandwidth (460GB/s against 307), twice the GPU cores (32 against 16), memory up to 128GB against 64GB, more ports (4 Thunderbolt 5 and 10Gb Ethernet as standard) and a bigger cooler. In llama.cpp with Llama 2 7B at 4-bit that is 120 tokens a second against 68; prompt processing is 2.4 times as fast.

Where the Mac mini is enough

For code, office work, photos and 4K video editing, the M5 Pro's CPU is within about 15 percent of the Max's, and the mini costs $800 less. If your models fit in 64GB and 68 tokens a second is fast enough to read along, it is the better buy.

Which one to buy

Buy the Mac mini M5 Pro unless you need the GPU. Buy the Mac Studio M5 Max for local AI with models over 30B, 3D rendering, or more than 64GB of memory. Still deciding when to buy? See the buyer's guide.

Questions

Its GPU is: 77 percent more in Blender and 77 to 86 percent faster llama.cpp text generation. On the CPU it is about 17 percent ahead in Blender's CPU test.

The Mac Studio M5 Max: 50 percent more memory bandwidth and up to 128GB of memory against 64GB.