GoKawiilMac Studio M5 Ultra tested against Nvidia DGX Spark in local AI benchmarks
Tom's Hardware ran deeper AI benchmarks comparing Apple's Mac Studio with M5 Ultra against Nvidia's GB10-based DGX Spark system, this time loading large models such as DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM 5.3 Flash to make use of the Mac's 256GB-plus memory pool. The tests included Artificial Analysis' AgentPerf-Local benchmark, which replays agentic AI workloads weighted heavily toward prompt processing rather than token generation.
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The outlet suggests the M5 Ultra's 80-core GPU and far higher memory bandwidth should give it a structural edge over GB10 in compute-heavy agentic workloads, though actual results depend on software optimization and real-world token generation speeds. For buyers weighing a $12,300-plus Mac Studio against cheaper Nvidia-based local AI boxes, these comparisons could inform whether the premium is justified for running large models locally.
- Apple's Mac Studio with M5 Ultra was tested against Nvidia's DGX Spark (GB10) system on new agentic AI benchmarks.
- Testing used large models like DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM 5.3 Flash to exercise the Mac Studio's large unified memory pool.
- The M5 Ultra's GPU core count and memory bandwidth give it theoretical advantages in prompt-processing-heavy workloads over GB10.
Apple Mac Studio M5 Ultra — If you're serious about running large local AI models, the Mac Studio with M5 Ultra offers massive unified memory configurations that let you load huge models like DeepSeek or GLM without offloading to disk. Its combination of CPU, GPU, and Neural Accelerators makes it a standout machine for AI enthusiasts and developers experimenting with agentic workloads at home.
See Apple Mac Studio M5 Ultra on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: tomshardware.com — Jeffrey Kampman, 2026-11-10
Published there as: “Going deep on local AI performance benchmarking with Apple’s Mac Studio with M5 Ultra taking on Nvidia DGX Spark”
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