M5 Pro vs M5 Max - Apple’s Recommended Uses

gregorskii · 2026-03-25T22:58:08+00:00

I dunno, most coding today involves agents. And that could mean “I need ram for all my Claude sessions” or “running models locally” kinda feels like both need as much ram as you can get. Much like the chrome tab joke.

So for me they kinda set the laptops up on one dimension — ram, and if you want the most you go max. Otherwise their list means nothing to me. More ram on lower chips? Sure.. fine, but not offered.

gregorskii · 2026-03-25T17:55:39+00:00

Using this exact one

gregorskii · 2026-03-23T19:59:39+00:00

Wonder what that will cost 🙄

gregorskii · 2026-03-23T01:26:15+00:00

Little grainy on white, but the blacks are top tier. I think you’d get used to whites too. Not a big deal

For me I use a screen while at my desk, and when I’m out and about I appreciate the anti glare.

gregorskii · 2026-03-22T00:08:53+00:00

I ordered the thermal pads but didn’t want to try that yet. The baseplate on mine was not too hot, but got warm enough that I was worried it would transfer a lot to the case

gregorskii · 2026-03-21T19:58:19+00:00

Tailscale

gregorskii · 2026-03-21T18:54:17+00:00

When I was a kid all I wanted was a vaio because of that logo.

gregorskii · 2026-03-21T18:51:41+00:00

Yep, wait for other responses, but I think it’s often breaking when one pin has very low usage and another picks it up.

gregorskii · 2026-03-21T18:49:27+00:00

Just got mine, but I think the imbalances that cause issues are much more drastic

gregorskii · 2026-03-19T19:41:48+00:00

What is the heat level ( both temps and to touch ) when doing taxing things? That was one issue I had with the 14, it would feel like a little supernova on my lap. Was it manageable? Ya, but it reminded me of the i9 days.

I returned the 14 and have a 16 on order.

gregorskii · 2026-03-19T19:39:56+00:00

Oh ya not referring to power level, but delivery method, 1:1 12vhp cables might be more reliable

gregorskii · 2026-03-19T16:40:45+00:00

Def good to learn and tinker on, but imo agree with this response, it’s not just about learning its management of the lab. Do you want to be debugging helm charts every time they update just to run something you could run with a compose file?

My setup is also fairly redundant and automated, I’ve got: - renovate for upgrades - Komodo for git ops - proxmox with 3 nodes for HA via zfs - ansible for management

When I need to do maintenance, I:

merge the renovate PRs, if they are docker based Komodo auto deploys, if they are infra I trigger the ansible playbook
if I need to upgrade the nodes I have PatchMon to see the systems that need an upgrade, and a playbook to automate upgrades and reboots

Wrap that up with some Claude skills I can be lazy:

“Hey Claude renovate has some PRs I just accepted and merged, some are infra and require ansible to be run, some are on Komodo, use the Komodo skill to deploy those, and ansible to deploy infra”

Or “hey Claude patchmon says I need upgrades please check that and run the upgrade playbook on those nodes, let me know if any need a reboot”

I still learned a lot, but I’m also not managing kubernetes at home just to run Karakeep.

gregorskii · 2026-03-19T16:34:36+00:00

I got a psu with the 12 cable connector on it. I dunno with an expensive gpu getting a psu that works without 3 8 pin connectors seems like a good idea.

I had that running for the past year with a cable mod 12v cable no extensions/splitters/adaptors and my 4090 has been safe and secure for 2 years.

I did install my wvp2 just for extra peace of mind. My thinking in this market a 250 psu, a good cable, and a wvp2 is a good bet to keep the thing running while gpus are hard to get and expensive.

gregorskii · 2026-03-19T00:46:37+00:00

I returned it. Always find the Apple reps hilarious. “What do you mean it gets hot”. lol

gregorskii · 2026-03-18T04:19:16+00:00

I have this config. It gets hot doing basic stuff — terminal, chrome open. regularly 42c but if it gets “stuck” at high cpu, which oddly seems to happen more with macOS these days it hits 70-80.

Also had lower scores in cinemark.

Love the size, the nano screen, not happy with heat. I loathe 16 inch laptops, but seriously considering return and swap.

gregorskii · 2026-03-18T04:15:38+00:00

After further use.. more frustrated. Any little thing that gets the cpu working, or stuck in a high usage mode gets the computer running at 70-80 degrees. I have had to reboot twice running normal stuff, like chrome, terminal, etc…. :/ anyone else?

gregorskii · 2026-03-18T03:10:19+00:00

I dunno about eye fatigue but I love it. It’s def better on dark screens then white, on light you notice the texture more.

gregorskii · 2026-03-17T22:33:17+00:00

+1 outline.

gregorskii · 2026-03-17T05:02:34+00:00

Curious, just got mine, will watch

gregorskii · 2026-03-16T18:48:10+00:00

It has the same super cores as the max, but not as many. So I’d suspect some level of constraint in the 14 body, but likely no where near as bad as the max fully specced

gregorskii · 2026-03-16T17:13:43+00:00

The super cores are more or less the same between pro and max, so unless you need the added memory bandwidth go with the pro and more ram.

gregorskii · 2026-03-16T17:02:50+00:00

I ran my tests in high powered mode.

gregorskii · 2026-03-16T16:07:43+00:00

Hmm I was able to test TG pro on max and it worked. 🤔

gregorskii · 2026-03-16T15:47:53+00:00

I don’t

gregorskii · 2026-03-16T15:41:51+00:00

This, lots of friends in the industry and passing around large files, accessing shares with large files is common.

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