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MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

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Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#81

On M4 Max 128GB we're seeing ~100 tok/s generation on a 30B parameter model in our from scratch inference engine. Very curious what the "4x faster LLM prompt processing" translates to in practice. Smallish, local 30B-70B inference is genuinely usable territory for real dev workflows, not just demos. Will require staying plugged in though.

What about real workloads? Because as context gets larger, these local LLMs aproxiate the useless end of the spectrum with regards to t/s.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#82
post #5

"Scaling up performance from M5 and offering the same breakthrough GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core, M5 Pro and M5 Max deliver up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing than M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to 8x AI image generation than M1 Pro and M1 Max." Are they doubling down on local LLMs then? I still think Apple has a huge opportunity in privacy first LLMs but so far I'm not seeing much execution.…

I think its just marketing, and the marketing is working. Look how many people bought Minis and ended up just paying for API calls anyway. (Saw it IRL 2x, see it on reddit openclaw daily) I don't mind it, I open Apple stock. But I'm def not buying into their rebranding of integrated GPU under the guise of Unified Memory.

My M4 MacBook Pro for work just came a few weeks ago with 128 GB of RAM. Some simple voice customization started using 90GB. The unified memory value is there.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#83
post #5

"Scaling up performance from M5 and offering the same breakthrough GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core, M5 Pro and M5 Max deliver up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing than M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to 8x AI image generation than M1 Pro and M1 Max." Are they doubling down on local LLMs then? I still think Apple has a huge opportunity in privacy first LLMs but so far I'm not seeing much execution.…

It’s not necessarily doubling down on local. The reality is your LLM should be inferencing every tick … the same way your brain thinks every. Fucking. Nano. Second.

So yes, the LLM should be inferencing on your prompt, but it should also be inferencing on 25,000 other things … in parallel.

Those are the compute needs.

We just need compute everywhere as fast as possible.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#84
post #38

Why doesn't this excite me anymore?

For me going way back, it was exciting when I had to save a bit (but not too much!) for a new 512 DIMM, and when I opened the box and smelled the chip smell, put it in always worried I was going to fuck it up, and then computer literally felt faster that next boot...that was pretty fun!! Now it's like oh great $5k for a slab of stone that can do pretty much anything, neat. I still think computers are cool, just not particularly exciting.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#85
post #2

But is it powerful enough to run Liquid glass?

/s I assume but it’s crazy to me that LG runs on the watch

Apple TV 4K can’t run the Liquid Glass interface without stuttering, turning off transparency restores fluid (heh!) animations.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#86
post #23

Whoah, both the Pro and Max CPUs feature 18 cores. This hasn't happened since M1 Pro/Max. This is a surprise. Also, the mix of cores have changed drastically. - 6 "Super cores" - 12 "Performance cores" I'm guessing these are just renamed performance and efficiency cores from previous generations. This is a massive change from the M4 Max: - 12 performance cores - 4 efficiency cores This seems like a downgrade (in core…

So they renamed performance to mean efficiency and are now using super in place of performance?

[deleted]

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#87

Whoah, both the Pro and Max CPUs feature 18 cores. This hasn't happened since M1 Pro/Max. This is a surprise. Also, the mix of cores have changed drastically. - 6 "Super cores" - 12 "Performance cores" I'm guessing these are just renamed performance and efficiency cores from previous generations. This is a massive change from the M4 Max: - 12 performance cores - 4 efficiency cores This seems like a downgrade (in core…

I think super cores are a new type/tier of core, not a rename of performance.

The base M5 has super/efficiency cores.

The Pro and Max have super/performance cores.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#88
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've upgraded to Tahoe at 26.2, zero complaints from my side. Haven't had any runaway memory leaks or similar that were reported.

Closing Tabs in Safari till takes more than a second though. And if you hold Cmd-W to close all of them it just completely locks up and crashes. Still not fixed since the release of Safari 26. Literally unusable

Never had this problem, been on Tahoe since it released. My safari tabs are buttery, silken smooth.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#89
post #79
post #5

"Scaling up performance from M5 and offering the same breakthrough GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core, M5 Pro and M5 Max deliver up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing than M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to 8x AI image generation than M1 Pro and M1 Max." Are they doubling down on local LLMs then? I still think Apple has a huge opportunity in privacy first LLMs but so far I'm not seeing much execution.…

But memory bandwidth (bottleneck for LLM inference) is only marginally improved, 614 GB/s vs 546 GB/s for M4/M5 Max - where is this 4x improvement coming from? I think I'll pass on upgrading.

It’s prompt processing so prefill - that’s compute bound not memory.
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