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Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development

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Re: Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development

#661

Post by mkesper »

827a wrote: post #518
iagooar wrote: post #199

I love my MacBook Pro M5 128GB RAM and I love qwen3.6. BUT DO NOT buy this MacBook if you plan on doing serious coding using local LLMs with it. The reason is simple: your fingers will burn and your head will explode from the noise. Running any kind of sophisticated job on the very laptop you are using is just not viable. Sure you can use it in clamshell mode, but forget touching it while working with AI coding or ag…

Apple does not sell a 64GB variant of the M4 Mac Mini. IIRC they never have; its always capped out at 48GB. If you were planning on getting an M5 128GB; just get a DGX Spark (~$4500) or a 5090-equipped machine (~$4500) plus a Macbook Air (~$1500). You'll come in below the M5 Max 128 pricing (~$6700+ USD) and be happier for it.

DGX Spark does not have high memory bandwith. M3 Max (Mac Studio) features more memory bandwith than that one. See https://aimultiple.com/dgx-spark-alternatives

Re: Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development

#662

Post by feffe »

satvikpendem wrote: post #529
ekianjo wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gemma is also worse for tool calling. not just coding

That is because they use a different tool calling format than most other models. Unsloth quants fix this in their Gemma releases.

I've never been able to fix the tool calling issues. Running unsloth versions with llama.cpp, constant issues. Have tried many forum fixes, including lots of fixed chat templates, to no avail. It's mostly the edit call that breaks, which often results in "let me just rewrite the whole file from context".

Re: Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development

#665

Post by asimovDev »

Tenoke wrote: post #639
amatecha wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"macOS" (or however they spell it now) is pretty bad, but I'm not sure it's possible Apple could ever possibly produce an OS as bad as Windows 11 lol, it's really surprising to me to see someone suggest it's somehow actually worse?! How many times has an Apple OS wiped your hard drive or otherwise been completely borked from a forced update? I know multiple people personally who have experienced this with Windows 10/…

>How many times has an Apple OS wiped your hard drive or otherwise been completely borked from a forced update I use Windows and this has never happened to me. I have had Macbooks I cant open to fix/replace something trivial while I can replace any part easily on a Windows PC/laptop though.

>Windows PC/laptop though.

needs to be noted that it's increasingly uncommon to be able to do so. for desktops you have to build everything yourself - prebuilds (either gaming or workstations) have proprietary PSU and motherboards (in case of workstations, sometimes CPU is bound to the motherboard / manufacturer, for example Threadrippers). Windows laptops now often come with soldered RAM and soon will probably be without M.2 slots like Macs.

There is Framework though I guess

Re: Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development

#667

Post by KingMob »

jarjoura wrote: post #287
iagooar wrote: post #199

I love my MacBook Pro M5 128GB RAM and I love qwen3.6. BUT DO NOT buy this MacBook if you plan on doing serious coding using local LLMs with it. The reason is simple: your fingers will burn and your head will explode from the noise. Running any kind of sophisticated job on the very laptop you are using is just not viable. Sure you can use it in clamshell mode, but forget touching it while working with AI coding or ag…

TBF, I just recently picked up this same model, and it's reminding me of the last gen Intel i9 MBP. Just visiting any non-basic website spins up the fans and battery life isn't great either. Yes, this thing is fast, but damn it gets hot just using it for normal tasks. Still, I don't agree. I think this machine is meant to use local models. You just have to wear pants if you want to keep it directly on your lap. I rar…

As someone who just upgraded a month ago from the last Intel MBP to a new base M5 MBP, I think your laptop might have a problem. I'm definitely not experiencing any of what you describe when doing normal tasks.

Re: Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development

#668

Post by nazgul17 »

sanderjd wrote: post #336
dofm wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you really don't feel the need to know the "why" of everything, sometimes this might be the right approach. It is quick, pragmatic, gets you started. Maybe my biggest problem with the world of agentic AI, and the reason I am putting myself through learning it the way I am, is that the need to know the "why" of everything is so fundamental to me, that I don't know if there is any point to me without it. So…

To me, this is just a question of specialization. Not everyone needs to be a "I understand how the system actually works" person. In fact, not many people need to be that person. But every system does need some of that person to exist! And we happen to be discussing this on a forum where the type of people who will be the specialists for the kinda of systems we're discussing are likely to gather. I'd be surprised if…

I think the more you know of how (many) things work, the slightly better you'll be at using them. From dishwashers to CPUs, from car engines to watercolours, from guitars to kitchen knives... You get the gist. Once you internalize a model of the thing, it becomes closer to an extension of you than a tool. You drive it better and with less friction.

Re: Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development

#670

Post by NamlchakKhandro »

jensC wrote: post #191
mendeza wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am eagerly waiting!

Me too, I am on a Jetson Orion 64GB (about 50W max). Using the nvidia graphic cards for AI seem to be so power hungry that it was not a choice I could take with todays environmental problems.

Huh?
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