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I have a fairly maxed out M2 Ultra (24 cores, 192GB RAM), and still cannot get this machine to choke on anything. I have not once felt the need to upgrade in y

I have a fairly maxed out M2 Ultra (24 cores, 192GB RAM), and still cannot get this machine to choke on anything. I have not once felt the need to upgrade in years, and that’s with doing pretty demanding 3D and LLM work.

throwaway911282 7mo ago
my m4max runs fan at high speed! just have few electron apps open..
mikert89 7mo ago
Yeah I have an M1 Max, and I really want to upgrade, but there’s no reason to.
Sharlin 7mo ago
AI video generation can fairly easily choke anything that's not NVIDIA's flagship model. Even the latest local image gen models are so large that they can be frustratingly slow with non-optimal hardware even if they fit in the VRAM. IIRC when I had an M2, it was about 4x slower at running the venerable Stable Diffusion (and SDXL) than my meager RTX 3060.
- testfrequency 7mo ago
  I do not do anything with AI Video, but I imagine running this locally would be a hog on a Mac - especially if not optimised for Metal.
carlosjobim 7mo ago
You might have confused Hacker News with your e-mail inbox again. This is an Apple press release, directed to everybody in the world who might be interested in a new computer or their first computer.
- testfrequency 7mo ago
  What’s with the attitude? My machine is aging like a fine wine, I’m acknowledging how resilient their custom silicon is despite the world demanding more and more compute.
  - carlosjobim 7mo ago
    It was a joke, should have put a smiley face. But every thread on a new Apple product here on HN have the same "why should I upgrade" comment, forgetting that there are people who might have very old devices they want to upgrade, or they might want to switch from Windows/Android to Apple. Even if a new device is a small upgrade from last year's model, it can be a giant upgrade for other people.
    - testfrequency 7mo ago
      Got it. I guess it feels unfair to gaslight people who are celebrating not needing upgrades, anecdotally sharing their experiences - because some people just need a new computer for xyz reason in time.
    - ffreire 7mo ago
      Are you one of the folks thinking of upgrading? If so, from what generation? What makes you excited? Isn't this a more interesting way to have the conversation?
_jab 7mo ago
I've found current-generation Macs so capable that I've switched to using a Macbook Air. Would strongly recommend - it's still a powerful machine and it's significantly lighter and cheaper.
- testing22321 7mo ago
  Yep. I got a used M1 air with 16GB and 2TB. It’s still the fastest computer I’ve ever used.
- xbryanx 7mo ago
  Would love to do that if it could support two additional displays with the lid open.
- asimovDev 7mo ago
  I have a M3 Max and considering that when I upgrade in 5 years or so , I will go base Mac Studio and base MBA. If I need to compile something or run a local LLM , I would just run that on the Studio and SSH from the Air. Wouldn't be running these heavy workflows while on the go anyways
aurareturn 7mo ago
and that’s with doing pretty demanding 3D and LLM work. It definitely chokes with larger models that can fit the 192GB of RAM. Prompt processing is a big bottleneck before M5.
- magicalist 7mo ago
  > It definitely chokes with larger models that can fit the 192GB of RAM M5 Max maxes out at 128GB, so that will have to wait for the eventual M5 Ultra anyways.
prodigycorp 7mo ago
If there’s anything this past three years has taught me, it’s that modern cpus can performantly do every task except for streaming text over the internet.
- hobofan 7mo ago
  I'm pretty sure that's just LLMs tendency to replicate bad React patterns.
- pmdr 7mo ago
  I had to upgrade the CPU in a 10-year old machine (from i5 to i7) to have decently -working javascript on websites. Every other piece of software worked fine, though.
Aurornis 7mo ago
I have a powerful older Mac that doesn’t really “choke” on anything, but I could always use more speed. The high memory Macs have been great for being able to run LLMs, but the prompt processing has always been on the slow side. The new AI acceleration in these should help with that. There are also workloads like compiling code where I’ll take all the extra speed I can get. Every little bit of reduced cycle time helps me finish earlier in the day. And then there’s gaming. I don’t game much, but the M1 and M2 era Apple Silicon feels sluggish relative to what I have on the nVidia side.
replwoacause 7mo ago
Sounds pretty beefy. What kind of local LLM is that thing capable of running? Does it open up real alternatives to cloud providers like OpenAI and Claude, or are the local models this hardware is capable of running still pretty far behind?
butILoveLife 7mo ago
[flagged]
- satvikpendem 7mo ago
  Just because you don't usually use local models doesn't mean others don't, especially with their 192 GB of RAM.
steve_adams_86 7mo ago
Mine is an M2 Max with only 32GB of RAM and while I'm sure you're doing things that would choke it, and there are a few things I'd like to be able to do but can't, it's insane how rarely I ever notice load on it. It feels like it'll be sufficient for a long time.

throwaway911282 7mo ago

my m4max runs fan at high speed! just have few electron apps open..

mikert89 7mo ago

Yeah I have an M1 Max, and I really want to upgrade, but there’s no reason to.

Sharlin 7mo ago

AI video generation can fairly easily choke anything that's not NVIDIA's flagship model. Even the latest local image gen models are so large that they can be frustratingly slow with non-optimal hardware even if they fit in the VRAM. IIRC when I had an M2, it was about 4x slower at running the venerable Stable Diffusion (and SDXL) than my meager RTX 3060.

testfrequency 7mo ago
I do not do anything with AI Video, but I imagine running this locally would be a hog on a Mac - especially if not optimised for Metal.

carlosjobim 7mo ago

You might have confused Hacker News with your e-mail inbox again. This is an Apple press release, directed to everybody in the world who might be interested in a new computer or their first computer.

testfrequency 7mo ago
What’s with the attitude? My machine is aging like a fine wine, I’m acknowledging how resilient their custom silicon is despite the world demanding more and more compute.
- carlosjobim 7mo ago
  It was a joke, should have put a smiley face. But every thread on a new Apple product here on HN have the same "why should I upgrade" comment, forgetting that there are people who might have very old devices they want to upgrade, or they might want to switch from Windows/Android to Apple. Even if a new device is a small upgrade from last year's model, it can be a giant upgrade for other people.
  - testfrequency 7mo ago
    Got it. I guess it feels unfair to gaslight people who are celebrating not needing upgrades, anecdotally sharing their experiences - because some people just need a new computer for xyz reason in time.
  - ffreire 7mo ago
    Are you one of the folks thinking of upgrading? If so, from what generation? What makes you excited? Isn't this a more interesting way to have the conversation?

_jab 7mo ago

I've found current-generation Macs so capable that I've switched to using a Macbook Air. Would strongly recommend - it's still a powerful machine and it's significantly lighter and cheaper.

testing22321 7mo ago
Yep. I got a used M1 air with 16GB and 2TB. It’s still the fastest computer I’ve ever used.
xbryanx 7mo ago
Would love to do that if it could support two additional displays with the lid open.
asimovDev 7mo ago
I have a M3 Max and considering that when I upgrade in 5 years or so , I will go base Mac Studio and base MBA. If I need to compile something or run a local LLM , I would just run that on the Studio and SSH from the Air. Wouldn't be running these heavy workflows while on the go anyways

aurareturn 7mo ago

and that’s with doing pretty demanding 3D and LLM work. It definitely chokes with larger models that can fit the 192GB of RAM. Prompt processing is a big bottleneck before M5.

magicalist 7mo ago
> It definitely chokes with larger models that can fit the 192GB of RAM M5 Max maxes out at 128GB, so that will have to wait for the eventual M5 Ultra anyways.

prodigycorp 7mo ago

If there’s anything this past three years has taught me, it’s that modern cpus can performantly do every task except for streaming text over the internet.

hobofan 7mo ago
I'm pretty sure that's just LLMs tendency to replicate bad React patterns.
pmdr 7mo ago
I had to upgrade the CPU in a 10-year old machine (from i5 to i7) to have decently -working javascript on websites. Every other piece of software worked fine, though.

Aurornis 7mo ago

I have a powerful older Mac that doesn’t really “choke” on anything, but I could always use more speed. The high memory Macs have been great for being able to run LLMs, but the prompt processing has always been on the slow side. The new AI acceleration in these should help with that. There are also workloads like compiling code where I’ll take all the extra speed I can get. Every little bit of reduced cycle time helps me finish earlier in the day. And then there’s gaming. I don’t game much, but the M1 and M2 era Apple Silicon feels sluggish relative to what I have on the nVidia side.

replwoacause 7mo ago

Sounds pretty beefy. What kind of local LLM is that thing capable of running? Does it open up real alternatives to cloud providers like OpenAI and Claude, or are the local models this hardware is capable of running still pretty far behind?

butILoveLife 7mo ago

[flagged]

satvikpendem 7mo ago
Just because you don't usually use local models doesn't mean others don't, especially with their 192 GB of RAM.

steve_adams_86 7mo ago

Mine is an M2 Max with only 32GB of RAM and while I'm sure you're doing things that would choke it, and there are a few things I'd like to be able to do but can't, it's insane how rarely I ever notice load on it. It feels like it'll be sufficient for a long time.