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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

M4 Pro with 64GB of ram starts at $3900? It doesn't take that much searching to know that is BS:

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini/apple-m4-pro-chi...

An upgraded M4 Pro mac mini to 64GB is $1999. You'll probably want the extra GPUs, though, bringing you up to $2199. But you probably want the max (not offered for the mini) or ultra to do serious LLM work. An M4 Max in a 14 inch MBP with 64GB of ram will cost $3900, but that's a whole step up from the M4 pro. I'm waiting to see what they do with the Mac Studio refresh (I don't need a max in a portable, and I'm betting I can get an M4 Ultra with 64GB ram for $4000 or so).

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> M4 Pro with 64GB of ram starts at $3900?

No, but the OP was talking about a M4 Macbook, not a M4 Pro mini. "I can easily run 70b on my macbook."

Like you said, a M4 Pro 14" Macbook does start at $3,900. Because they lock the 64GB ram behind the top spec M4 Max. There is no M4 Pro MBP with 64GB of ram, only M4 Max.

> 36GB available with M4 Max with 32‑core GPU. > 48GB available with M4 Pro or M4 Max with 40‑core GPU. > 64GB or 128GB available with M4 Max with 40‑core GPU.

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/14-inch-space...

No, you can get an M4 Max MacBook Pro for $3900. You guys keep quoting M4 pro as the M4 max, they aren’t the same chip. M4 pro MBP starts at $1999. Again, M4 pro != M4 max.

The page you linked to said as much.

The question is of 64GB laptop-shaped machines.

That page won't let me configure a machine with 64GB until I pick the "Apple M4 Max chip with 16‑core CPU, 40‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine" option.

And a machine with that option selected, and with 64GB, starts at $3,899.00.

Remember: This all started with "what do you mean? I can easily run 70b on my macbook. Fits easily."

This is tiring:

Mac mini M4 pro 64 GB not - $1999

MBP M4 Pro 48 GB - $2799 (64 GB not an option)

MBP M4 Max 64 GB - $3899 (only top line M4 Max supports 64 GB)

Obviously, an M4 Max is not an M4 Pro, and an M4 Pro is much much cheaper than a M4 Max. Original comment said M4 Pro started at $3899, which is obviously uninformed or malicious. Calling it an “M4 pro M4 max” is just lunacy.

The original comment really was just about the M4 Pro with 64 GB, and the Mac mini does actually deliver that configuration for $1999. Switching it up to a laptop only discussion came later and was just an instance of moving the goalpost.

You're also going to want some more SSD space, because working with these model files on a 512 GB root is going to quickly become a problem. If you get the 2TB option, that's another $600.

Thunderbolt 5 mostly takes care of the storage problem.

You are right. I've been looking at MacBook with M4.

You would need to get an M4 Max (which is probably the right choice for real LLM work). I don't think mobile GPUs do very well on the PC side, so if you want portability, Apple might be your best bet.

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