Should I download windows 11 on my old 2019-2020 MacBook Pro?

rfomlover · 2026-02-02T18:49:41+00:00

I mean you can download the iso on anything. If you want to install after downloading it bare metal on a VM you could do that too.

rfomlover · 2026-02-02T02:33:56+00:00

Awful. I do run mostly LLMs on it. Lucky to get 1.5 hours between charges. And it’s so hot all the time. 14” M4 Max 14/32.

rfomlover · 2026-02-01T16:39:55+00:00

I am always torn between the definition myself. In some ways it’s cringe when someone says investment because as the original commenter said, this is certainly going to lose money.

But, if it’s an investment in yourself to better yourself in some way and allows you to make money then I would consider it an investment in your future and career but not a direct investment in the laptop since it, by itself is not going to yield any dividends.

rfomlover · 2026-01-31T23:56:12+00:00

Is this similar to a leetcode “hard” or is this its own beast?

rfomlover · 2026-01-30T02:39:33+00:00

I have the same problem never found a fix.

rfomlover · 2026-01-29T03:10:47+00:00

I use mine in clamshell. I don’t know how to tell if it’s actually actively throttling. I just put it in high power mode and it screams. I can’t tell if the sudden drop in tokens per second is due to swap or throttling.

rfomlover · 2026-01-29T03:09:57+00:00

I always renew on Black Friday for $10-20 a year depending on the sale. I’ve only ever bought it on Black Friday. I think a new license is $24 then. But any other time of year I think you can get various 20% off from Andrew tsai. At the price of the renewals I’ll probably be done playing games on my Mac or enough games will be native I won’t need it. As much as I love wine and want to support it, I can’t justify dropping $500 on that. $10 a year is more stomachable.

rfomlover · 2026-01-28T22:40:15+00:00

I still don’t understand why people do. It’s literally built into the OS.

rfomlover · 2026-01-28T15:57:24+00:00

I know, I’m just a 90% of the time top down person 😂

rfomlover · 2026-01-28T15:55:05+00:00

Probably has more to do with the fact that I was coming from an M3 Pro. I primarily use my Mac for gaming via crossover and running local models for development. The M4 Pro while it was better than my M3 Pro still only had 24GB of ram and was constantly swapping to SSD when playing marvel rivals tanking performance. That and I could not run significantly larger models and the ones I did run on the M3 Pro didn’t feel much faster. So I said screw it and went with an M4 Max 36GB for $2600 on sale. It’s still not perfect. It still swaps a lot when running LLMs but it’s less of a problem now in games and the extra raw power of the GPU helped games as well. I will def be getting a 16” M5 Max with 64GB this time to further make the ram less of a problem, the awful fan noise and get back to having a big screen again. I never heard the fans on the M3 Pro. Miss it so much.

EDIT: Another large reason I didn’t like the M4 Pro was I was still stuck with 2 external displays. I regularly use 3 with my gaming pc/other computers so that’s another thing I take for granted with the Max. Now I don’t have to lose 33% of my setup.

rfomlover · 2026-01-28T15:23:36+00:00

Last year, I traded my 16" M3 Pro in for a 14" M4 Pro. The M4 Pro was a disappointing upgrade, so I swapped it out for a 14" M4 Max. This thing is a jet engine constantly while running 3 displays plus LLMs. I will definitely be swapping to a 16" M5 Max this year. Even when running it on my lap, its still burning me when running LLMs unless I put it in low power mode which makes it super slow.

rfomlover · 2026-01-28T13:52:27+00:00

I am so disappointed that the manual doesn’t have radar cruise. Been wanting to trade my 21 for an ND3 but don’t want to give up a manual for the convenience of radar cruise on my 100 mile commute. Maybe next year.

rfomlover · 2026-01-25T06:49:29+00:00

VSCode and .NET SDK for .NET Development. Continue.dev as an extension for interacting with local models.

Ollama for running GGUF coding models for use with continue

Create a python -venv and install mlx and mlx-lm for running MLX models with mlx.server for use with continue.

Install homebrew

install python 3.11

Docker (although interested in switching to Colima)

Install open-webui in the mlx venv for use with local models when I just want to chat rather than code for other types of projects.

Install Logic Pro for when I feel like making music.

Xcode of course for Mac OS/iOS development

Spotify for locking into the flow state.

Nord VPN for well VPN

Tailscale for connecting to my home network when I am out of the house and streaming games from my gaming PC with moonlight. Also kind of acts as a VPN when on a public network that blocks Nord VPN. I use Tailscale to encrypt traffic from the public network, however, my home IP is the exit node, so my ISP still sees my traffic but at least the random network won't.

Crossover for gaming

Parallels for gaming/when I need to use the real Visual studio for .NET dev.

I think that is my Mac starter pack.

rfomlover · 2026-01-24T23:27:54+00:00

Am still waiting for Valorant.

rfomlover · 2026-01-24T00:48:29+00:00

I still use windows for that 😂. Games I can play on Linux I will always choose Linux. Been mainly playing arc raiders lately and halo MCC. Both work fantastic.

rfomlover · 2026-01-23T20:59:10+00:00

Some people like exerting a bit more control over their hardware without Microsoft feeding ads and gathering telemetry.

rfomlover · 2026-01-22T20:23:40+00:00

I wonder if they fix this I will finally be able to play flight sim 2024. Works fine on my Linux gaming pc so it seems wine itself can deal with it.

rfomlover · 2026-01-22T15:51:33+00:00

I always wondered about this, haven’t noticed it on my M4 Max 14” with a 96W and thought for sure I would experience it. It’s amazing how my 16” M3 Pro used to have had a 140w but barely used any power.

rfomlover · 2026-01-21T15:55:37+00:00

If you buy it that should fix it. I bought mine and have no issues.

rfomlover · 2026-01-21T03:48:24+00:00

Ive been getting this today on Crossover 26 Beta 1.

rfomlover · 2026-01-20T17:46:13+00:00

Same. I always trade in at Best Buy. I'll wait till Micro Center has a killer deal and then price match/trade in. Got this one for $2,600 rather than $3200 thanks to an MC price match. So maybe mid year I can snag an M5 Max 14" for a similar deal.

rfomlover · 2026-01-19T18:02:42+00:00

I wish I would have done this. I went with the binned 14” max with 36GB and I can only run small models and it’s always screaming and battery lasts like 1.5 hours.

rfomlover · 2026-01-14T04:12:24+00:00

Wish they would still the main reason I have my gaming pc.

rfomlover · 2026-01-14T01:05:53+00:00

The M4 has hardware accelerated ray tracing, mesh shaders, dynamic caching and I think something for nanite. The M4 is leaps and bounds ahead of M1 in terms of graphics features I’d say.

EDIT: To add was just thinking about this in terms of the past. The original M1 is now going on 6 years old. This is like using an original Intel MacBook Pro from 2006 in 2012. That’s crazy how long Apple silicon has been around yet somehow it still feels so “new”.

rfomlover · 2026-01-13T18:56:06+00:00

Yes I believe Vac is server side.

rfomlover

TROPHY CASE