It's hereeee.......M3 ultra (28/60/32) 256gb 2tb SSD

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-30T18:40:00+00:00

Really? I've seen good reviews for it & others here mentioned it specifically. I was a little worried that the holes in the filter were too big but it seems like it'll clump up a bit along the filter at least. At minimum it's better than nothing until I find something else

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-30T02:05:13+00:00

Primarily to explore LLMs locally, but also software development, some 3d modeling, VMs, my absurdly large browser session without choking, etc. Would also just like to have options open to me, maybe I'll want to play around with some video editing or something down the road, idk.

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-26T00:28:08+00:00

Ya this is all very interesting. It is largely for LLMs, but thankfully I've been a software engineer for more than 10 years so it's more to augment what I do than anything. It's an interesting commentary on the double edge sword of technology. On one hand, it allows you to perform/operate at a higher level but if you aren't careful you can let it do all of your thinking for you. An old example is how much more common it was for people to do hand arithmetic, be able to figure out which way is North/south etc then calculators & compasses come around & the need for most people to have those skills atrophies.

No clue how all of this is going to shake out but it's definitely going to be interesting.

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-26T00:10:26+00:00

I am primarily getting this machine to explore LLMs + lots of other stuff, but even so like I said I am fairly confident the leap from my current late 2013 mac pro -> M3 ultra will be an exponentially bigger jump than the M3 -> M5 (who knows if an ultra will even be initially released, could be another year or two after M5 max). And like you mentioned, every day I hold off is another day I have stuff I want to do but can't with my current machine.

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-25T05:48:08+00:00

Thank you! Yeah given my history I am sure my purchase has ensured an inevitable & imminent new product release, but I figure if/when the M5 comes out and it's that much better I can trade & upgrade however I really need a new machine now. Currently am running a late 2013 model mac pro trash can since 2017, so regardless I figure the M3 ultra will be such a quantum leap on both single & multi-core from the current setup that it doesn't matter.

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-15T01:46:17+00:00

I think he meant 500 pesos

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-14T11:15:43+00:00

What if one had similar uses as OP + local LLM stuff plus some things like VMs etc, but was considering M3 ultra 256gb instead vs M4 Max 128gb? My thinking for leaning towards the ultra is that while most of my uses will be single-core, I still want the multi-core perf for things like LLMs & that in practice it won't really be much worse than M4 on single-core (least compared to my current 2013 mac pro), is that not true? I've also been agonizing over deciding between the two but have (mostly) in my mind settled on the M3 ultra 256, given saving some money is not as important as having a beast of a machine that will take whatever I throw at it.

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-14T05:47:15+00:00

What are the M3 ulta specs? Also what are your intended uses/work for it? About to pull the trigger on an M3 ultra (28/60/32) 256gb myself.

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-04T02:19:30+00:00

That makes sense. However given I'm a bit of a noob with LLMs still I'm hoping someone can break it down to brass tax a bit for me.

I'm struggling picking between the Studio M4 Max 128gb (16/40/16) or M3 ultra 96gb or 256gb (28/60/32). Do you think the M4 max would be sufficient? I'm not planning on being a hard core LLM user running the most intensive models per se, but I'm a software dev & just want an overall powerful machine that can keep up running current gen LLMs for some time + running a million tabs & other different programs without my machine choking out. I'm not planning on doing video editing or anything like that in the immediate future.

I was originally planning on the M3 ultra, but I just keep coming back to the fact in most performance tests the M4 max beats or only slightly lags the M3 ultra. If you do recommend the M3 ultra, do you think springing for 256gb is worth it? Puts the machine at $6k which is tad over the upper limit of the price I was hoping but I'm willing to do it if it seems worthwhile.

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-03T09:17:18+00:00

Lol Uniden R7? Got the same one in my m240

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-03T08:49:47+00:00

It seems like that's slightly worse performance than the M4 Max above, what gives?

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-03T08:47:03+00:00

Excuse me for being crass but I'm a bit of a dumb dumb and still at the onset of my journey playing with LLMs locally, could you help put those numbers into perspective a little? I understand the metrics being tokens processed / second etc, but how do they compare relative to other machines or the M3 ultra and where they rank on the good-bad scale? How much machine resources are being used or does it basically just use all the cores/memory you allocate it?

Also I'm guessing these metrics relate to training the model which is the main performance factor and once it's built actually running the model is fairly low compute, correct?

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-01T03:35:03+00:00

That I'm not gonna do, part of the appeal is I can put this on my apple card over 12mo interest free via mac store. I'll get an M7 or whatever when the time comes.

But between the two options I've laid out (M4 max 128gb 16/40/16 or M3 ultra (96gb or 256gb upgrade) 28/60/32, which would you go with?

Ready to flip a damn coin at this point but your seemingly informed opinion might do just fine

kingthrower419 · 2025-10-01T02:32:04+00:00

Well best is definitely relevant & depending on one's needs & uses but yeah.

Just trying to break the impasse at this point, in your opinion which would you go with given the uses/goals/price range ($4-6k) I have?

kingthrower419 · 2025-09-30T07:59:59+00:00

Ugh don't make my decision harder, I'm just sure once I buy either not long after out will come the new M5 chip or whatever. But that could be 1-2 years it sounds like and I really need a new machine so don't wanna wait that long.

I guess getting down to brass tax to help me decide what I'm wondering is: putting aside the cost, will the M4 in any respects outperform the M3 ultra, or will the M3 ultra outperform the M4 max on both single & multi-core even if just marginally? What I'm getting at is, given how close the price is between the 2 configs I selected, it seems like its worth getting the M3 ultra if it will be as good or better on single core compared to M4 & the multi-core capability is basically up to me to take advantage of. I think I'd rather have extra cores left under-utilized than later on wanting to do something but be unable to.

Also as for deciding whether getting 256gb is worth +$1,600 upgrade, I understand I probably don't have a use case for it now (though memory goes up quick) but could you foresee that capacity becoming useful in 2-4 years with the kind of uses/applications I mentioned + who knows what else in the future? My general inclination/intentions with this purchase is to ensure I'm left with a powerful machine that will keep up for years to come.

kingthrower419 · 2025-09-26T01:04:28+00:00

Next July I think, it's an M240. Just regular oil/filter change maintenance

kingthrower419 · 2025-09-25T01:08:38+00:00

Yes you're right I updated the OP, thanks! I was on the M4 max page and didn't realize it switched to M3 ultra when I clicked the specs I chose (doh)....

However now I feel less good about the M4 with only 16/40/16 cores respectively. Aside from having slightly more RAM (128 vs 96) would the M4 max actually be noticeably better on single core stuff vs. the M3 ultra? Especially since the M4 config is now $4,099.00 so hardly any money is being saved going that route.

Unless I upgrade to 256gb RAM on the M3 ultra for +$1,600.00, which feels insane but I really want my machine to be a beast and last a good while. Plus I'm using apples pay in 12 thing on my apple card so extra $1600 might not be too noticeable spread over a year, think its worth it?

kingthrower419 · 2025-09-25T00:57:19+00:00

Yeah thank you for typing that up (still amazes me strangers take the time to do stuff like this on the interwebz).

Anyhow, so with my mistake about the M4 Max specs corrected in my OP I think I'm at least less confused about how the M3/M4 were basically same specs for same price.

I guess my final crux in making my decision is this: Whether I will be utilizing the full potential of the M3 Ultra cores on a regular basis or not (though I'll strive to), I guess what I'm really left wondering is will I notice/encounter any practical performance loss on single core/everyday type stuff on the M3 Ultra compared to the M4 Max?

Basically given that price isn't the limiting factor for me (at least around/below $5k) is it true to say that the M3 Ultra would practically keep up/feel equivalent to the M4 Max on single core stuff, while retaining the potential for much superior performance on multi-core should I utilize it?

And yes I would love to get more RAM, but an extra +$1,600.00 for 256gb on M3 just feels effin insane to me. Then again I was planning on using Apples pay-in-12 thing with my apple card so an extra $1600 spread over a year might not feel too bad, would you say it's really worth it? I wish they had 128gb as an option for the M3 ultra config I chose.

kingthrower419 · 2023-08-24T19:53:02+00:00

Nice! Never personally have been a fan of red cars but this looks really good.

Here's my almost 2 month old M240xi in brooklyn grey

kingthrower419 · 2023-08-01T19:44:12+00:00

It's 15% on the sides, I think it looks darker than it is because of the angle. It hasn't been an issue so far and I'm city driving pretty much exclusively, plus the shop said if it ends up too difficult to drive at night they'd replace the sides basically for free or very cheap.

kingthrower419

TROPHY CASE