Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU / 40-core GPU): 128 GB, what it runs and what it costs
Specs checked · Aliteq Team · How we compute this
The short answer
The Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU / 40-core GPU) has 128 GB of VRAM and 614 GB/s of memory bandwidth (2026). At Q4_K_M quality or better with an 8K context it runs 51 of the open models we track; the largest that fits with room to spare is Mistral Small 4 119B (MoE). We don't see it for rent on the providers we track right now.
- VRAM
- 128 GB
- Bandwidth
- 614 GB/s
- Board power
- —
- Launched
- 2026
Source: Apple specification · bandwidth not yet confirmed by a second source, so we don't estimate speed from it
Buy it or rent it
Not for rent on the providers we track right now. See every card that is.
Which AI models run on the Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU / 40-core GPU)
Computed by our VRAM engine for an 8K context: the best quality each model fits at in 128 GB. Speeds are upper-bound estimates from memory bandwidth, not benchmarks.
| Model | Best fit | VRAM used | ~tok/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8-Flash-Next (MoE) | Q5_K_M | 120 GB94% · tight | — |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10B (MoE) | Q8_0 | 125 GB97% · tight | — |
| NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B-A12B (MoE) | Q8_0 | 124 GB97% · tight | — |
| NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B (MoE) | Q8_0 | 123 GB96% · tight | — |
| Mistral Small 4 119B (MoE) | FP8 | 114 GB89% | — |
| gpt-oss 120B (MoE) | MXFP4 | 62 GB49% | — |
| Llama 4 Scout 17B-16E (MoE) | Q8_0 | 109 GB85% | — |
| GLM-4.5-Air (MoE) | Q8_0 | 107 GB84% | — |
| Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (MoE) | Q8_0 | 80 GB63% | — |
| Qwen3-Coder-Next 80B-A3B (MoE) | Q8_0 | 80 GB62% | — |
| Llama 3.3 70B Instruct | Q8_0 | 73 GB57% | — |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill 70B | Q8_0 | 73 GB57% | — |
Fits only below Q4 quality: Qwen3 235B-A22B (MoE) (Q4_0), MiniMax-M2.5 (MoE) (Q4_0).
Too big for 128 GB (rent a bigger card instead): what it costs to run MiniMax-M3 (MoE), what it costs to run MiniMax-M3.1-Flash (MoE), what it costs to run GLM-5.3 (MoE), what it costs to run DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (MoE).
Check a model and context of your own in the VRAM calculator.
Our guides on the Apple M5 Max (18-core CPU / 40-core GPU)
Cards to compare it with
- Apple M4 Max (16-core CPU / 40-core GPU) · 128 GB
- DGX Spark (GB10 Grace Blackwell) · 128 GB
- AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo,) · 128 GB
- Apple M2 Max · 96 GB
- RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition · 96 GB
- RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition · 96 GB
Every card by VRAM tier: all GPUs for gaming and local AI.