Performance
What is Prompt Processing (Prefill)?
The initial phase where the model reads and processes your entire input prompt before generating the first token. Prompt processing speed is measured in tokens per second and depends heavily on GPU compute power. The M5 Max's 4x peak AI compute over M4 Max makes it significantly faster at processing long prompts, especially for coding and RAG workflows with large context.
Where Prompt Processing (Prefill) comes up on LLMCheck
- Local LLM Blog — Guides, Reviews & Comparisons for Mac AI
- M4 vs M5 for Local LLMs: Is the New Apple Silicon Worth It? (2026)
- M5 Ultra and M6, Measured: How the LLMCheck Estimates Held Up (2026)
- The $899 M6 Mac mini as a Local-AI Machine: What Actually Fits
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next on a Mac: 6B Active, 112 GB, and the License Clause to Read First (2026)
- M5 Max MacBook Pro vs. M4 Max Mac Studio: The Local LLM Showdown
Look up tok/s for your exact chip and model →