M5 Ultra Mac Studio Review: The Dream Mac for Local AI Agents

Federico Viticci tested the 256GB M5 Ultra Mac Studio for local AI agents and found it makes locally-run personal assistants genuinely usable. Compared to an M3 Ultra and an RTX 5090 desktop, the M5 Ultra wins on size, thermals, and noise; the 5090 still leads in memory bandwidth. He now defaults to the Qwen3.8-Flash-Next model inside Open Minis and Hermes Agent, noting faster response starts, sustained speed at large context windows, and smooth multi-turn loops. He also uses local models as sub-agents orchestrated by GPT-6 Astra in Codex. The post does not disclose specific tokens-per-second or latency figures.

Why it matters: Federico Viticci's hands-on review includes a specific model, comparative benchmarks, and real usage — not a spec-sheet rehash. Hits all three HKR axes, but as a hardware review rather than an industry-level event, it lands in the 78-84 band per policy.