M5 Max vs M3 Max

Side-by-side LLM inference benchmarks: M5 Max versus M3 Max across 3 models. Evidence-backed tok/s measurements with confidence metadata.

3Shared models

M5 MaxWins 3 of 3

41%Avg speed advantage

6Measurements used

M5 Max is faster in 3 of 3 models tested. Average advantage: 41%.

Model-by-model comparison

Each row shows the fastest published generation speed for that model on each chip family. Higher tok/s is better. Evidence badges show data provenance.

Model	M5 Max	M3 Max	Difference	Evidence
llama-3-1-8b-instruct	61.6 tok/s Q4_K_M	45.8 tok/s Q4_K_M	35% M5 Max	CommunityCommunity
llama-3-2-1b-instruct	229.0 tok/s Q4_K_M	149.0 tok/s Q4_K_M	54% M5 Max	CommunityCommunity
qwen-2-5-14b-instruct	34.3 tok/s Q4_K_M	25.5 tok/s Q4_K_M	35% M5 Max	CommunityCommunity

Data confidence

This comparison uses 6 measurements. 6 are community-reported.

All numbers reflect generation speed (tok/s) at the best available quantization for each side. Quantization levels may differ between families. Where quant levels differ, the comparison shows each chip at its measured best — not a controlled variable.

Chip variants in this comparison

M5 Max

M5 Max 32 core gpu

M3 Max

M3 Max 30 core gpu M3 Max 40 core gpu

Data

benchmarks.json — full dataset · benchmarks.csv — CSV export

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