Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max

I'm a lunix engineer, probably 25+ years of lunix now (I started on bsd, thats why I say lunix), I've worked on macbook pros for the last 15 years. I had to reinstall macos for the FIRST TIME ever this year because their current version Tahoe is absolute trash that slowed down my M1 Max so my much I finally gave up and wiped it. I also won't go near an x86 processor ever again after using the mX/arm procs. We're paying for the hardware. The 100x better screens, speakers, battery life, the apps on macos blow linux apps away even if all of them, even the most simple apps, cost $20+. But with that said Apple has also priced me out of buying another MBP for a long time with how expensive their 64gb+ versions are. My m1 max was $3500 and I can't believe I paid that, but here I am 7 years later still using it and it cranks. I'd have replaced 3 x86 laptops by now. Oh, and I had the entire laptop replaced for $99 when its battery got bad and the screen cracked last year thanks to applecare, though that did require me paying for applecare at $99/yr each year. But that still doenst add up to another $3500 laptop. I just drove to the apple store dropped it off and picked it up a week later.

> And nobody in the right mind would buy a used Macbook for the same price, just because it's more powerful. I would buy a used Macbook Pro for the same price, just because it is more powerful. I have bought used Macbook Pros for many years, and have never had any problem. Apple gear is durable, and I've never had any SSD issues or problems with dead pixels. The laptop I'm typing this on is a 2021 M1 Max, so 5 years old now, and I just did an SSD health check, it is 100% after 5 years of heavy use. It easily has 5 more years of life.

I'm still running a 4 year old M1 Max 32GB Mac Studio as my daily and really haven't found anything that it shows sign of slowness/age with. That said I don't do any local AI or 8K video editing type stuff. On upgrade I could probably live on a moderate/high spec Mac mini since the only reason I went Studio originally was the resolution/number of displays it could support.

Macs on the other hand are extremely stable. In my 4 years of using my MacBook Pro M1 Max, I’ve only restarted during OS updates. There were maybe a handful instances where it froze and I forced restart. Other than that, I only put it to sleep every time and it works like a charm. I use it for heavy duty software development and experimentation with local models, so it’s even more surprising!

Mine is an M1 Max and gives me no gripes after four years. Like you, I also felt as though past laptops felt their age sooner. I'm typically using Photoshop, Lightroom, Resolve, Docker and other usual stuff at any given time.

Another innovation is their line of M-series chips. I'm typing this on an M1 Max and this is by far the best combination of industrial design and physical hardware that I have used over the past 20 years. I've had it for four years, three new generations of chips have come out since then and this thing chews through anything I throw at it. A ground-breaking, industry-changing innovation like the iPhone is like lightning in a bottle. It would be insane to think Apple can capture lightning every 5 years like clockwork.

The jump from Intel to M* is huge. Whether that's worth it for you - hard to say. You can get a good deal on a refurbished or used M* MBP and try it out. My 2021 M1 Max MBP is still going strong; so strong I just can't justify a new one. Biggest thing to note is how many external displays you want to drive. I got the M1 Max to drive my 2-4.

I have a three year old M1 Max, 32gb RAM. Llama 8bn runs at 25 tokens/sec, that’s fast enough, and covers 80% of what I need. On my ryzen 5600h machine, I get about 10 tokens/second, which is slow enough to be annoying. If I get stuck on a problem, switch to chat gpt or phind.com and see what that gives. Sometimes, it’s not the LLM that helps, but changing the context and rewriting the question. However I cannot use the online providers for anything remotely sensitive, which is more often than you might think. Local LLMs are the future, it’s like having your own private Google running locally.

For many years, I was one of Apple's highest-end customers. I needed the fastest machines they offered for the workloads I threw at them. I made music in Logic Pro with a zillion plugin instruments and effects and I ran a ton of apps with a ton of open windows when I wasn't doing that. I always bought the PowerMacs and then Mac Pro and eventually the iMac Pro when Apple painted themselves into a thermal corner with the Mac Pro. I bought a MacBook Pro M1 Max in 2021 and started using it as my primary machine driving external Studio Displays. It's the first computer I've ever owned that doesn't feel the least bit slow as I approach the three year mark. I've been asking myself when I think I'll upgrade and I truly don't know; probably not before some incredible new software feature isn't available on this hardware. I used to replace machines when the three year AppleCare coverage expired or soon after. I can't see that happening any longer. To some degree, this isn't even about Apple Silicon (though that sure helps). Even my iMac Pro with Xeon processor was approaching a point where I'd have got to this milestone eventually. Apple Silicon accelerated the jump by a good margin. I have no doubt I'd be able to tell the difference if I got an M4 laptop whenever they arrive, but I'd struggle to justify it to myself. (I should mention, in fairness, that I've been on a hiatus from making music since partway through the pan and that undoubtedly makes a difference. But even then, I think

As mundane and common as the information I’m about to share may be, it’s the reality of MacBook ownership for many - dare I say most? I don’t buy new MacBooks. I get them refurbished from MicroCenter, Apple, or elsewhere. In 2024, I picked up a 2021-released 14” M1 Max MacBook Pro w/ 2 TB and 64 GB for $1800 from Microcenter. Because Apple is so hostile to repairs, I have been paying for AppleCare+ and will continue for some time. But I don’t see myself truly needing to replace this machine for another 2-3 years. It’s my daily driver for BBedit, some IDEs, music apps, Firefox with dozens of tabs, Mail, Messages, iTerm2 with half a dozen tmux sessions. True - my computing needs are not demanding. But for those of us who offload commuting to remote servers and mostly use thin clients, the computer is a joy to use. I’ve been dabbling in Ableton Live Suite 12 Lite, which came with my Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 MKII midi keyboard, and this machine never breaks a sweat. The M-series are seriously as close to BIFL as a consumer laptop can be. Meanwhile, my wife’s daily driver is a 2013 13” MacBook Air w/ 128 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM. And an Intel i7 from that era. I won’t defend this though. She’s insane, and I don’t know how she lives with herself. I purchased it used from a Craigslist seller to be my daily driver 14 years ago, and it lasted until I upgraded to a 2020 M1 MacBook Air base model, which I later donated to a friend in need.

Same for me, in a Mac Studio. It's only 2 years old so it's not like I would expect it to suck, but it's a rocket.

The M1 Max that I have is easily the greatest laptop I've ever owned. It is fast and handles everything I've ever thrown at it (I got 32 GB RAM), it never, ever gets hot, I've never heard a fan in 2+ years (maybe a very soft fan if you put your ear next to it). And the battery life is so incredible that I often use it unplugged. It's just been a no-compromise machine. And I was thinking of upgrading to an M3 but will probably upgrade to an M4 instead at the end of this year when the M4 maxes come out.

My M1 Max 64GB macbook is a consumer product that can be had for $2k on ebay. It runs Qwen3.8 just fine. Is $2k for a whole machine not "consumer" ?

Here are the numbers that got me buying a used M1 Max for LLM work. M1 Max 400GB/s M4 Pro 273GB/s M5 Pro 307GB/s Only Max are worthwhile for LLMs. An Ultra is just two Mac chips on a die, but I think they're just used in Mac Studio. I'll check it that inference engine! Thanks! Edit: it doesn't give numbers for unsloth/Qwen-3.6-35B-A3B 4bit, but I'm using mlx-serve right now and getting petty good numbers (and it took a while to tweak everything properly!)

I have an M1 Max MBP (16", 64GB, 4TB) and I see no need to upgrade. I got it when the M3 came out so I saved about $2,000.

> "Man you Apple Fans really live under a rock... ...refurbished 3090 is 2500" Before you make assumptions, there are valid reasons for the choice I made: I paid $1k for a refurbished M1 Max 64GB macbook that can run Qwen 3.8 27B at 24tok/sec (looks like they are about $1.5k on ebay). In my case, Apple was a lot cheaper (used) if you're looking at price-per-token. Yes, it's almost twice as slow as a 3090, but it's also half the price /performance ratio. Qwen 3.8 27B Q4 with 64k: 3090: ~40tok/sec M1 Max : ~24tok/sec (MLX) In fact, the Max can even do 265k context which isn't possible with a single 3090 last I checked (without dropping to Q3-Q2)

I have tried an M4 Macbook a while ago but my M1 Max Macbook still feels plenty fast. Hope to keep that for a long time.

I’ve felt the same way since way back then ever since reading about this guy’s setup[0], so I paired a 11” MBA with the quad core Mac Mini 2012. I’ve kept that philosophy over the years, the MBA was replaced by the 2017 12” retina MacBook and then again with the 13” M2 MBA. The Mini gave way to the 2018 Mini, then a M1 Max Studio. I even attempted replacing the MacBook with an iPad though that didn’t really workout. It’s the best of both worlds really, enough power to do everything when on the go and even more power back at the office. 0: https://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/a-note-about-my-new-mac-set...