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M5 Ultra Mac Studio Review

269 points · 262 comments · piotrgrabowski

  1. simonw · · focus · HN ↗
    The numbers I was most interested in are tucked away in a chart towards the bottom - the speed comparison of the Mac Studios v.s. a RTX 5090:

      Qwen3.8 27B tokens/sec generation speed
    
      Prompt size    8K    64K   128K   256K
      RTX 5090 PC    59    51    44     n/a
      M5 Ultra       48    39    32     24
      M3 Ultra       31    23.5  20     15
    
    A whole bunch more comparison numbers in this section: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.macstories.net&#x2F;stories&#x2F;m5-ultra-mac-studio-review-the-dream-mac-for-local-ai-agents&#x2F;#mx-pc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.macstories.net&#x2F;stories&#x2F;m5-ultra-mac-studio-revie...
    1. traceroute66 · · focus · HN ↗
      Not forgetting of course that an RTX5090 is what 600W+ ? And the Mac is probably half that at most ?
      1. washadjeffmad · · focus · HN ↗
        Certainly not forgetting wattage. A 5090 is 575W. The M5 Ultra Studio is 480W.

        nvidia-smi -pl 450 for like a 4% reduction in throughput. I tend to set it around 350W because it&#x27;s a comfortable temperature blowing on my legs under the desk without warming my office in the summer.

        I put together this system two years ago, so it&#x27;s a little out of date, but it only cost $3000 for the same performance and capability as an Ultra. I don&#x27;t think I would spend $7000 to save 100W, though.

        1. TacticalCoder · · focus · HN ↗
          &gt; nvidia-smi -pl 450 for like a 4% reduction in throughput.

          Yeah people don&#x27;t pay enough attention to those settings IMO. The first thing I do when I set up a new machine (or upgrade my OS) is to restore all my powersaving configs.

          For example I&#x27;ve got all but one of my virtual desktops that put the CPU in powersave mode: I don&#x27;t need max Ghz when browsing the Web, not even on demand. But when I switch to the virtual desktop where my development environment is, then I want power on demand.

          Now I don&#x27;t do it to save the planet: I do it because I love a quieter computing experience (coupled with Be Quiet! PSU and Noctua fans, this makes for a very quiet computer). That it consumes less electricity is a nice side-benefit.

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