Ask HN: Should I buy mac studio M4 max or macbook M5 pro? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I buy mac studio M4 max or macbook M5 pro?

As a developer building projects with AI coding agents, I need to have the system running day and night. Do you think buying mac studio is worth it?

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I like the Studio but currently, Apple is limiting the ram to 64GB. The Macbook Pro with M5 you can get 128GB of ram. I've got an M1 studio and i'm looking to upgrade when the M5 studio comes out. Hopefully they'll offer it with at least 128GB of ram. Also, it's my understanding that when the MBP is under heavy load and the CPU is heating up, the system will throttle down the performance so it doesn't overheat, whereas the Studio has a bigger heatsink and fan to let it run full throttle.

64GB is good for me for now, I'll wait for the M5 upgrade

Completely ignoring the chips, I generally prefer a desktop for anything that's going to be running all the time.

There are rumors that the Mac Studio will be getting an M5 update this year. If you can wait, it might be worth waiting a bit.

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/25/m5-ultra-mac-studio-202...

The memory size looks insane! Is that even real? But they had the 512GB version in M3 Ultra so highly likely that it is

There was a calculation done, but it had some serious flaws. There are some other discussions of this topic on HN too.

Apple Silicon costs more than OpenRouter (williamangel.net) 355 points by datadrivenangel 44 days ago | 311 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48168198

Thanks for the share, really good read!

Depends on your specific needs. What are your needs and use cases?

The M4 Max has more GPU cores, but the maximum amount of memory you can get is only 64 GB.

The M5 Pro, on the other hand, is faster at single core, has fewer GPU cores, but can go up to 128 GB memory.

Rumors are that the Mac Studio is getting updated to M5 in Fall or Winter 2026, if you can wait.

> I need to have the system running day and night

Buy a server or rent a VPS. Take the cost of either of the Apple options and divide by 36 months and get the biggest server you can for that monthly price.

Why 36 months?

i am assuming he is suggesting a 3 year depreciation cycle for the equipment, quite common on enterprises.

Makes sense. I'll ask sonnet 5 to help me out with the comparison

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