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Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

For running models locally, priced in the US. At 64k context the first runs 38 models fully in memory, the second 27.

In short

The Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB has more memory for models: 96 GB against 32 GB. At 64k context the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB runs 38 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 27; only the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB holds Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is about 2.1× as fast as the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB (estimated, median across models). In the US the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB costs $4,399 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 $4,921 at eBay: the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB is $522 cheaper.

Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB

$4,399

eBay

Add to build
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

$4,921

eBay

Add to build

Specifications

SpecMac Studio M3 Ultra 96GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
ChipApple M3 Ultra (80-core GPU)–
Memory bus1024-bit512-bit
Memory bandwidth819 GB/s1,792 GB/s
FP16 compute28 TFLOPS209 TFLOPS
SoftwareMetalCUDA
Unified memory96 GB–
GPU can use by default72 GB–
GPU can use, tuned88 GB–
Operating systemmacos–
ProcessorM3 Ultra 32-core–
Storage1000 GB–
GPU–GeForce RTX 5090
Memory–32 GB GDDR7
Board power–575 W
PCIe generation–Gen 5
PCIe lanes–x16

What each runs

Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.

ModelMac Studio M3 Ultra 96GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
Qwen 3.8 27B16tok/sQ8_042tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B51tok/sQ3_K_Moffload
Qwen 3.6 27B16tok/sQ8_041tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 Coder Next66tok/sQ6_Koffload
gpt-oss 120B58tok/sMXFP4won't run
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B48tok/sUD-Q3_K_Moffload
Gemma 4 31B14tok/sQ8_035tok/sQ6_K
Mistral Small 4 119B54tok/sUD-Q4_K_Moffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B71tok/sQ8_0173tok/sUD-Q6_K
Qwen 3.5 27B16tok/sQ8_041tok/sQ6_K
Gemma 4 26B-A4B56tok/sQ8_0117tok/sQ8_0
GLM 4.5 Air15tok/sQ3_K_Moffload
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B78tok/sQ6_Koffload
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B71tok/sQ8_0175tok/sQ6_K
GLM 4.7 Flash36tok/sQ8_087tok/sQ6_K
Devstral Small 2 24B15tok/sQ8_037tok/sQ6_K
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B85tok/sUD-Q6_K_XLoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3B85tok/sQ8_0277tok/sQ4_K_M
gpt-oss 20B79tok/sMXFP4165tok/sMXFP4
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B33tok/sQ8_075tok/sQ6_K
Qwen3 32B10tok/sQ8_0offload
Gemma 4 12B38tok/sQ8_079tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B45tok/sQ8_095tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 3 27B15tok/sQ8_040tok/sQ6_K
Mistral Small 3.2 24B15tok/sQ8_037tok/sQ6_K
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B10tok/sQ8_0offload
Llama 3.3 70B8tok/sQ5_K_Mwon't run
Ministral 3 14B21tok/sQ8_044tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 14B20tok/sQ8_042tok/sQ8_0
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B29tok/sQ8_061tok/sQ8_0
Qwen3 8B29tok/sQ8_061tok/sQ8_0
Phi-4 14B18tok/sQ8_038tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B80tok/sQ8_0166tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B29tok/sQ8_061tok/sQ8_0
Granite 4.2 8B27tok/sQ8_055tok/sQ8_0
Gemma 4 E4B53tok/sQ8_0110tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B75tok/sQ8_0156tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B35tok/sQ6_K73tok/sQ6_K
DeepSeek V4 Flashwon't runwon't run
GLM 5.3 Flashwon't runwon't run
Qwen 3.8 Flash Nextwon't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.7won't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
Choose the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 for speed. Choose the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
At 64k context the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB runs 38 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 27; only the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB holds Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B.
Which is faster for local AI, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is about 2.1× as fast as the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB (estimated, median across models).
What is the price difference between the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090?
In the US the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB costs $4,399 at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 $4,921 at eBay: the Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB is $522 cheaper.

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