Live data from Hacker News

M4 MacBook Pro

apple.com

51–60 of 1001 posts

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#51
post #20

> "up to 1.8x faster when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro" I insist my 2020 Macbook M1 was the best purchase I ever made

Same. My MBP and M1 Air are amazing machines. But I’m now also excited that any future M chip replacement will be faster and just as nice.

The battery performance is incredible too.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#52
post #19

This is the first compelling Mac to me. I've used Macs for a few clients and muscle memory is very deeply ingrained for linux desktops. But with local LLMs finally on the verge of usability along with sufficient memory... I might need to make the jump! Wish I could spin up a Linux OS on the hardware though. Not a bright spot for me.

You totally can after a little bit of time waiting for M4 bringup!

https://asahilinux.org

It won't have all the niceties / hardware support of MacOS, but it seamlessly coexists with MacOS, can handle the GPU/CPU/RAM with no issues, and can provide you a good GNU/Linux environment.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#53
post #2

Nano-texture option for the display is nice. IIRC it's the first time since the 2012 15" MBP that a matte option has been offered? I hope that the response times have improved, because it has been quite poor for a 120 Hz panel.

[deleted]

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#54
post #6

How viable is Asani Linux these days? MacBook hardware looks amazing.

btw, there is a recent interview with an Asani dev focusing on GPUs, worth a listen for those interested in linux on apple silicon. The reverse engineering effort required to pin down the GPU hardware was one of the main topics.

https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2024/10/15/linux-apple-...

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#55
I'm pleased that the Pro's base memory starts at 16 GB, but surprised they top out at 32 GB:

> ...the new MacBook Pro starts with 16GB of faster unified memory with support for up to 32GB, along with 120GB/s of memory bandwidth...

I haven't been an Apple user since 2012 when I graduated from college and retired my first computer, a mid-2007 Core2 Duo Macbook Pro, which I'd upgraded with a 2.5" SSD and 6GB of RAM with DDR2 SODIMMs. I switched to Dell Precision and Lenovo P-series workstations with user-upgradeable storage and memory... but I've got 64GB of RAM in the old 2019 Thinkpad P53 I'm using right now. A unified memory space is neat, but is it worth sacrificing that much space? I typically have a VM or two running, and in the host OS and VMs, today's software is hungry for RAM and it's typically cheap and upgradeable outside of the Apple ecosystem.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#56
post #5

It seems they also update the base memory on MacBook Air: > MacBook Air: The World’s Most Popular Laptop Now Starts at 16GB > MacBook Air is the world’s most popular laptop, and with Apple Intelligence, it’s even better. Now, models with M2 and M3 double the starting memory to 16GB, while keeping the starting price at just $999 — a terrific value for the world’s best-selling laptop.

Every M-series device now comes with at least 16GB, except for the base iPad Pro, right?

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#57

The M4 Max goes up to 128GB RAM, and "over half a terabyte per second of unified memory bandwidth" - LLM users rejoice.

We run our LLM workloads on a M2 Ultra because of this. 2x the VRAM; one-time cost at $5350 was the same as, at the time, 1 month of 80GB VRAM GPU in GCP. Works well for us.

You have another one with a network gateway to provide hot failover?

Right?

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#58

The M4 Max goes up to 128GB RAM, and "over half a terabyte per second of unified memory bandwidth" - LLM users rejoice.

This is definitely tempting me to upgrade my M1 macbook pro. I think I have 400GB/s of memory bandwidth. I am wondering what the specific number "over half a terabyte" means.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#59
post #2

Nano-texture option for the display is nice. IIRC it's the first time since the 2012 15" MBP that a matte option has been offered? I hope that the response times have improved, because it has been quite poor for a 120 Hz panel.

> IIRC it's the first time since the 2012 15" MBP that a matte option has been offered?

The so-called "antiglare" option wasn't true matte. You'd really have to go back to 2008.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#60

The M4 Max goes up to 128GB RAM, and "over half a terabyte per second of unified memory bandwidth" - LLM users rejoice.

We run our LLM workloads on a M2 Ultra because of this. 2x the VRAM; one-time cost at $5350 was the same as, at the time, 1 month of 80GB VRAM GPU in GCP. Works well for us.

Can you elaborate, are those workflows in queue or can they serve multiple users in parallel ?

I think it’s super interesting to know real life workflows and performance of different LLMs and hardware, in case you can direct me to other resources. Thanks !

Post reply on HN