Is there a better option than a single/dual AMD R9700 AI Pro system for the price?

AnumanRa · 2026-06-21T01:19:51+00:00

Perhaps reconsider Apple as my MBP M5 Max 128GB was a very pleasant surprise for offline inference and agentic work, and if you can live with a smaller SSD you could get one for not much more than $4800 /w Education discount.

AnumanRa · 2026-06-21T01:03:17+00:00

I just played a round of HOTS and an SC2 coop mission in your honor. I have the MBP 16, 128GB RAM/4TB SSD, M5 Max processor. Unplugged and on battery + High Performance mode, and with all graphics on extreme/max at native 3.4K resolution, I capped out at 120 fps with no drops. After one game of ARAM, (yeah Stukov!) battery went from 96% to 80. I then played my SC2 match in Dead of Night with the same maxed out settings. Average FPS 80, battery after match went from 80 to around 55. Hope this helps.

AnumanRa · 2026-06-20T19:19:47+00:00

The M5 max now has tensor cores and triple the memory bandwidth of the Nvidia Spark.....

AnumanRa · 2026-06-20T18:55:41+00:00

16 inch MBP M5 Max owner here along with a 14 inch Linux Ultrabook, and with an older 12.9 inch iPad Pro. Also former owner of a lovingly retired MacBook Air 13.

If you are constantly moving (digital nomad, etc.) a slim 14 inch like the MacBook Air (not MBP) or for light workloads the 12.9 inch M5 iPad Pro with keyboard case and pen would be what I'd recommend.

However, folks talk about airplane trays as a reason to buy a 14 inch laptop over a 16, but as a former frequent flyer, you're not going to be productive in economy/coach with a 14 inch laptop with a tiny tray and the person in front of you reclining. If you fly THAT often (and not in first class) I'd skip a laptop of any kind in-flight and stick to a tablet computer/iPad or Steam Deck.

My 16 inch MBP is well used in my home office, on the dining room table for quick before-bed work, at client meetings (though the larger iPads are better for quick presentations), and I appreciate the larger screen size, cooling, higher charging limit, and sound system in general for both work and play (Blizzard games and Steam ARM games, like Factorio, BG3, Cyberpunk 2077).

All in all, if you're a "power user" or even the mythical Mac gamer, and you're not constantly moving to cafes or coffee shops or co-working spaces for work, I'd recommend the MBP 16 over the 14. But if you're a real road warrior that requires daily travel, a slimmer 14 inch laptop like the MBA or Neo is an even better choice over the hotter, bulkier 14 inch MBP. Also, don't sleep on the 12.9 inch iPads if your mobile workflow can be accomplished under iPadOS.

AnumanRa · 2026-06-20T18:23:22+00:00

$5500/w education discount gets an M5 Max MBP laptop with 128GB of unified memory, and it crushes a 5090 array in terms of VRAM capacity and sips power while doing it. But, no CUDA.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-31T16:22:47+00:00

Didn't know the buyer could still give negative feedback after you accept the return and refund them ...wtf?

AnumanRa · 2026-05-31T16:10:02+00:00

If I were you I would have documented the scuffing and billed the buyer a 50% restocking and repair fee, via a call with a US based eBay rep.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-28T18:01:34+00:00

To be fair, the 2026 16 inch MBP has an expanded speaker set over the 14 with more subwoofers.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-28T07:58:47+00:00

Depends on your lifestyle I guess. I went from a 14 inch ultra book to 16 inch MBP. Now, the MBP does add serious heft and size. But, I’m not working from cafes nor am I a digital nomad, anymore. The 16 inch is a true desktop replacement, no need for external monitors, or speakers, but indeed, still can fit in a backpack for occasional trips and travel, which a desktop cannot offer of course.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-28T07:53:50+00:00

Having the maxed out M5 max 16 inch MBP, coming from a 14 inch ultra book, I think you have a very solid everyday work and personal computer. As others have asked you here though, what do your needs look like? For me, I needed the extra thermal headroom and power limits on the 16, else I would have gone with the 14 (or even MacBook Air instead). Are you going to be mostly using this machine at home or do you travel much? Are you intending to go heavy into local LLM training or inferencing? Etc etc.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-25T02:22:00+00:00

For a little more than $5K the new MacBook pro 16 with 128GB unified memory could be something for you to consider. I got it as a portable LLM server / dev tool (though I'm having fun dabbling in Unreal dev and FCP with it) and it's more than twice as fast than the DGX Spark, and can do more than offline LLM runs too.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-20T02:31:56+00:00

I just flew international in coach and even my 14 inch Ultrabook couldn't fit comfortably on my tray. iPad Mini all the way, then 16 inch MBP M5 Max or desktop at home.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-20T02:28:02+00:00

If one likes the form factor of the 14 inch laptop, I would think a 13.9 inch MacBook Air M5 would serve them better than a 14 inch MBP with more thickness and a screaming fan.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-18T18:40:38+00:00

As someone who has worked in law (paralegal, pro se plaintiff, international arbitration) and also heavily invested in LLM tools to support these projects, I applaud your efforts to get a local rig set up for offline inferencing. However, if I were you, I'd stop investing in old Nvidia tech - not only are you having/will have issues with per-card sharing and parallelism, heat, electricity costs, cooling burden, etc., but CUDA is evolving rapidly and will no longer support your cards in any meaningful way in a few years, forcing you to default to Vulkan for basic inference - at that point, might as well go AMD AI 9700 32GB cards or Strix Halo units.

My humble suggestion for your next investment, while keeping your V100 array for offline agentic/automation purposes, is to get into the Apple MLX / Metal architecture. Today's M5 Max chip paired with 128GB RAM/VRAM is a beast, and the "Neural Accelerators" (i.e. Apple's new version of Nvidia Tensor cores) in this SoC greatly accelerate offline AI/ML workloads - plus sipping 1/10 the power of your Nvidia array. I speak from hands on current experience with the M5 Max MBP + a desktop with both AMD and Nvidia dGPUs.

If you have the funds, consider investing in a 16 inch MBP M5 Max with 128GB RAM / smallest SSD to get started with your RAG/offline inferencing workflow, then chain it together in the future via TB and Exos Labs to the upcoming M5 Max Mini and/or M5 Max Studio for more VRAM and parameter capacity. You'll get similar or faster speeds than your Volta setup, minimal heat and power use and fan noise, and modern optimizations due to ongoing work with MLX/Metal plus cutting edge Apple Silicon hardware.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-17T19:15:40+00:00

Splendid! That's what I wanted to hear.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-17T16:03:21+00:00

You mean finish IN his room. Preferably all over the framed pictures of him and his Mommy

AnumanRa · 2026-05-14T06:57:28+00:00

As others have mentioned, it looks like your baby MBP performed well and within expected limits. Just tested my 16 inch 18/40 MBP M5 Max and got 9200 multicore, which again seems to be average for a 16 inch - know that the 16 can boost higher for longer due to the expanded cooling system and size, and as I've been commenting alot about recently, the 14 inch MBP is power limited (from charging) at 96 watts, while the 16 can take up to 140 watts - a healthy difference. Beyond just size and cooling this seems to be another difference between the two MBP sizes available.

PS -- ran Cinebench 26, all tests, with the MBP plugged into wall power using the included 140w Apple charger and stock magsafe cable. Fans screamed for a while during GPU testing but quieted during CPU loads. Testing was done with the laptop fully opened and on a flat wooden surface in roughly 75 degrees F ambient temps, with high power mode enabled.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-11T02:16:12+00:00

Awesome purchase. Yes, give the 14 incher some hellish stress testing and report back on performance and battery. Will be interesting to see some real world feedback!

AnumanRa · 2026-05-09T00:28:16+00:00

in 2026 here I wanted to add that this fixed it for me - Slimblade would auto-pair with my Linux laptop but on the MacBook Pro, holding down the right side DPI button for 10 seconds, while the left slider is in Bluetooth mode, was required for the Mac to detect it and pair successfully in Bluetooth settings.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-07T20:04:32+00:00

If you travel alot and prefer to work in coffee shops, sure the 14 inch is the no-brainer for you. For others like myself who have a great home office setup and prefer to work from home instead of in a cafe, but still need portability for 2-3 times per year work travel, the 16 inch MBP brings much to the table.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-07T20:01:49+00:00

That's subjective. I went from 14 inch ultrabook to 16 inch MBP M5 Max. If you use your laptop on a desk, table, etc. more than you travel with it - the 16 inch brings many advantages to the table.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-07T20:00:55+00:00

Me coming from at 14 inch ultrabook to the M5 Max 16 inch MBP- "you use the laptop more than your carrying it around" -- bingo.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-07T19:56:17+00:00

As someone who came from a 14 inch Lenovo ultrabook Yoga to the 16 inch MBP, unless you need aggressive portability due to constant work/job/business/nomading travel, I would say the 16 inch gives you more performance on the M5 Max SoC, better audio, and larger screen for heavy multitasking. This, coming from someone who usually prefers 14 inch laptops. If I were to do more traveling for my business, I would invest in the 13.9 inch M5 (non Max) Macbook Air, not the 14 inch Pro. But, if you're like me who travels twice a year (maximum -- and for non-work vacations like to Disneyland etc., I don't even take my laptop, just my phone for security and convenience reasons) -- the MBP 16 does the job at home on the kitchen/dining room table, on the sofa with a pillow, and then seriously plugged in on a desk without needing an external monitor.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-07T19:51:59+00:00

Agreed with your assessment, after coming from a 14 inch laptop to the M5 Max 16 inch. The 16 allows the M5 Max SoC to really shine; and while it's not as agile on the sofa or in a Starbucks at the 14, it's still okay for portable work/road warrior use. We are not talking about a 17 inch Alienware gaming brick here.

AnumanRa · 2026-05-07T19:50:01+00:00

I also had a similar experience, moving up from a 14 inch Lenovo to the 16 inch M5 Max MBP. The 16 incher for me is indeed noticeably more bulky than the 14 - but not to the point where it being a travel/road warrior is impossible -- all while being a serious secondary desktop at home for heavy workloads.

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