NVIDIA DGX Spark vs Mac Studio M5 Ultra for local AI
Mac Studio M5 Ultra should generate tokens faster (more memory bandwidth). NVIDIA DGX Spark fits bigger models. Mac Studio M5 Ultra is cheaper right now by $1,451.
Specs
| NVIDIA DGX Spark | Mac Studio M5 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|
| Stock | Available | Available |
| Lowest price | $6,950 | $5,499 |
| Memory | 128 GB LPDDR5x unified | 96 GB Unified memory |
| Usable for models (est.) | ~109 GB | ~72 GB |
| Bandwidth | 273 GB/s | 1,200 GB/s |
| Software | CUDA | MLX / Metal |
| Price per GB | $54.30 | $57.28 |
Model by model (4-bit)
| Model | NVIDIA DGX Spark | Mac Studio M5 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.5 9B | Fits~30 tok/s | Fits~132 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 12B | Fits~23 tok/s | Fits~99 tok/s |
| GPT-OSS 20B | Fits~86 tok/s | Fits~376 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | Fits~71 tok/s | Fits~313 tok/s |
| Qwen3.8 27B | Fits~10 tok/s | Fits~44 tok/s |
| GLM-4.7-Flash 30B-A3B | Fits~90 tok/s | Fits~396 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 31B | Fits~9 tok/s | Fits~38 tok/s |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Fits~90 tok/s | Fits~396 tok/s |
| Llama 3.3 70B | Fits~4 tok/s | Fits~17 tok/s |
| Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B | Fits~90 tok/s | Fits~396 tok/s |
| Llama 4 Scout 109B-A17B | Fits~16 tok/s | Tight fit~70 tok/s |
| GPT-OSS 120B | Fits~60 tok/s | Tight fit~266 tok/s |
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B | Fits~23 tok/s | Won't fit |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10B | Fits~27 tok/s | Won't fit |
| Qwen3 235B-A22B | Won't fit | Won't fit |
| Muse Spark Open 816B-A42B | Won't fit | Won't fit |