If the job is on-device AI work, running and prompting models locally rather than sending everything to a server, buy the Mac. Start at the Mac mini with M6 at $899, or $799 education, and step to the Mac Studio with M5 Max at $2,499 if the work pays for itself, because every AI performance figure Apple publishes in this lineup is attached to a Mac chip and it has published none at all for any iPad.
That is an argument from absence as much as from numbers. The catch on the Mac side is that $899 buys no display, keyboard or mouse, and Apple’s own Studio Display is $1,599. The catch on the iPad side is that nobody can tell you how it performs, because Apple has not said.
Key facts on the decision
| Question | What Apple publishes |
|---|---|
| Verdict | Mac |
| Entry pick | Mac mini with M6, $899, or $799 education, on general sale Tuesday September 22 |
| Serious pick | Mac Studio with M5 Max, $2,499, or $2,299 education |
| M6 AI claim | Up to 4x faster AI performance than M4. Prompt processing for large language models up to 13.5x faster than M1 and 4.8x faster than M4 |
| M5 Max AI claim | AI performance 3.9x faster than M4 Max. Prompt processing 10.7x faster than M1 Max and 3.9x faster than M4 Max |
| M5 Ultra AI claim | Peak AI compute 4.3x faster than M3 Ultra and 9.8x faster than M1 Ultra |
| Clustering | Four Mac Studio systems deliver 3x faster AI inference than a single system |
| iPad AI performance figure | None published |
| Apple Intelligence advanced tier | Mac with M3 or later and 12GB or more memory. iPad with M4 or later and 12GB or more memory |
| Siri AI in the EU | Available on macOS when set to a supported language. Not available initially on iPadOS |
| Test conditions | Not published for any figure in this table |
Why the numbers exist on only one side
Apple describes the M6 in the cheapest new Mac desktop as up to 4x faster on AI than M4, and puts prompt processing for large language models at up to 13.5x faster than M1. For Mac Studio it goes further, quoting AI performance 3.9x faster than M4 Max on the M5 Max and peak AI compute 4.3x faster than M3 Ultra on the M5 Ultra, then adding text-to-image figures of 7.4x against M1 Max and 8.2x against M1 Ultra. It even publishes a clustering claim, that four Mac Studio systems together deliver 3x faster AI inference than one.
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Search Apple’s iPad material for the equivalent and there is nothing. No AI performance multiple, no prompt-processing figure, no memory bandwidth number per model. The only AI-related line Apple draws on iPad is a capability gate rather than a speed: the advanced on-device model, which powers Siri voice customisation and improved on-device Dictation, needs an iPad with M4 or later and 12GB or more of unified memory. On Mac the same gate is M3 or later with 12GB or more, a full generation lower.
Treat every Mac figure as Apple’s own generational comparison, not a benchmark. It publishes no application, duration or configuration for any of them, so they establish ranking rather than absolute speed. The same caution applies to the iPhone silicon claims in our A20 Pro explainer, where the Neural Accelerator design that reappears in each M6 graphics core is set out.
Memory is the real divider
| Machine | Maximum unified memory | Memory bandwidth | GPU | Apple’s headline AI claim |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac mini, M6 | 32GB | Up to 170GB/s | 12-core with Neural Accelerators in each core | Up to 4x faster AI than M4 |
| Mac mini, M5 Pro | 64GB | 307GB/s | Up to 20-core | 8.5x faster prompt processing than M2 Pro |
| Mac Studio, M5 Max | 128GB | Up to 614GB/s | Up to 40-core | 3.9x faster AI than M4 Max |
| Mac Studio, M5 Ultra | 512GB | 1.2TB/s | Up to 80-core | 4.3x faster peak AI compute than M3 Ultra |
| Any current iPad | Not published per model | Not published | Not published | None published |
Unified memory is the ceiling on what a local model can hold, and the one specification here that cannot be changed after purchase. Apple’s Mac ladder runs 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 512GB, with the 512GB Mac Studio configuration not shipping until late October 2026. Apple describes the M5 Max CPU as 18 cores, six of them “super cores” beside 12 performance cores. On iPad there is no published ladder at all.
What the iPad still wins
The iPad wins on the things Apple does publish. It is the device you can hold, and its price includes a screen where the Mac mini’s does not: the 11-inch iPad Air with M4 is recorded at $749, or $699 education, against $899 for a mini that needs a display. Apple Upgrade lists iPad from $11.99 a month against Mac from $24.99. The Back to School gift card, which ends on Thursday September 24, pays $100 on an eligible iPad Air or iPad Pro and nothing at all on a Mac mini or any desktop Mac.
iPadOS 27, arriving free on Monday September 14 alongside iOS 27, also brings the one measured iPad claim Apple has made: browsing and transferring files to external drives up to 5x faster, tested on an 11-inch iPad Pro with M4 and a USB4 SSD moving 10,000 JPEGs. For pulling footage off a drive on location, that figure is more relevant than any inference multiple.
The catch in each option
- Mac mini with M6, $899. A 32GB memory ceiling, Thunderbolt 4 rather than 5, and no display, keyboard or mouse in the price.
- Mac mini with M5 Pro, $1,699. Nearly twice the money for a previous-generation chip family, bought for the 64GB ceiling and Thunderbolt 5.
- Mac Studio with M5 Max, $2,499. The right answer for serious local model work, and a machine that never leaves the desk.
- Mac Studio with M5 Ultra, $5,499. The 512GB configuration that justifies it does not ship until late October 2026.
- Any iPad. No published AI performance figure, no published per-model memory, and Apple’s own wording says Siri AI is not available initially in the EU on iPadOS while macOS does get it.
- Every Mac. macOS 27 is the final release to support Rosetta, so Intel-only tooling has one cycle left.
What has not been confirmed
Apple has not published a single AI performance figure for any iPad, nor per-model unified memory for iPad, which together are what would settle this comparison properly. It has not published test conditions for any Mac figure quoted here, a specific late-October date for the 512GB Mac Studio, or per-device AppleCare+ prices for this generation. Its macOS 27 and Apple Intelligence lists name a MacBook Neo with an A18 Pro chip, with no published price or configuration in this material.
The dates are close. iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate both ship free on Monday, September 14. Mac mini and Mac Studio reach general sale on Tuesday, September 22, and the Back to School gift card closes on Thursday, September 24. None of the Mac hardware came from the September keynote in our event recap, and if the real competitor in your head is a phone, our iPhone 18 Pro coverage and the folding iPhone Duo arriving October 23 from $1,999 are the other two ways to spend this money.
