🖥️Computing Macbook Pro M4 vs M5

[roydan]

Or maybe just wait for M6?

I doubt anyone buys Macbook for extra 8 GB RAM.
I'd rather pick bigger SSD than 8 GB RAM. Powerful GPU or CPU? even better

I spent 5 years with my last macbook that has 500gb and I still have half of it empty so I'm not that worried about that.
Don't feel like waiting another 6 months either honestly.

 

[shattered world]

Now, leave the OS battle outside for a sec because I use both PC and Mac and they both suck equally and I'm not smart enough for unix/linux or whatever you clever youngsters use.

Fanboys for both are idiots.

Both have their place and pros and cons. Lots of people have both depending on what they're using their computer for.

 

[RiskyStuff]

Fanboys for both are idiots.

Both have their place and pros and cons. Lots of people have both depending on what they're using their computer for.

Well, it made more sense in the past to be Windows fan.

Why? MacBook didn't have much advantage over Windows.

Now it's different. A lot different.

The energy efficiency of Apple is insane.

And power you get is a lot bigger than Windows.

It's only lack of dGPU but you can use cloud services if you don't have it. Windows dGPUs in laptops aren't worth the price as they will fail in true battle... just put powerful desktop instead.

Apple got so good recent years it'd be silly on my side to recommend Windows laptop instead.

Don't fu*ing think it's smart to buy Samsung or Pixel as well. iPhones got better too.

 

[Sikor]

If it’s out of your budget, it might be better not to buy it, you could regret it later. Consider choosing something more affordable than Oskar’s products.

 

[RiskyStuff]

If it’s out of your budget, it might be better not to buy it, you could regret it later. Consider choosing something more affordable than Oskar’s products.

Lol, read my last post. It's a good product these days. And RoyDan is rich man from Israel.

 

[roydan]

If it’s out of your budget, it might be better not to buy it, you could regret it later. Consider choosing something more affordable than Oskar’s products.

It's not a budget thing like it is me hating to buy stuff I don't need (or pay for features or capabilities I won't need, for that matter).

Now the top option is likely the Macbook pro M5pro 14" with 24gb ram and 1tb SSD.

The one thing I still can't get past is how stupid 24GB of RAMis.
Memory sizes were always nice, clean powers of two. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. So where the hell did 24 come from?

RoyDan is rich man from Israel.

Technically a laptop is a business expense ;-)

 

[Dopious]

The one thing I still can't get past is how stupid 24GB of RAMis.
Memory sizes were always nice, clean powers of two. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. So where the hell did 24 come from?

It is Apple, nothing is weird.

 

[SilverClouds]

The one thing I still can't get past is how stupid 24GB of RAMis.
Memory sizes were always nice, clean powers of two. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. So where the hell did 24 come from?

Fr tho, my Dell has 32. 24 is kinda weird.

 

[notNewB]

I am tempted bad to buy an 16 inch m4 max one, but the thing is freaking expensive. I mean I can afford it but the thought of going for a lower end configuration and buying a few backlinks to my site with the saved money not letting me do it..

I am a gaming laptop lover. Owned a 1050 laptop, a 1660 ti laptop, 2060 super laptop and currently accompanying my 3060 hp victus to its last days (it's 5 years old now and has many chips and cracks). So I need to buy a new device in the near future and I really want a macbook. And I know that if I eventually end up buying a macbook, it'll serve me for years.

One thing is that I love gaming, even though I do it rarely these days. I play Dota 2, Subnautica, GTA and a few other games once a month or two but I like to enjoy it to the most when I do. I figured m4 pro isn't powerful enough for my beloved Subnautica. I could wait for m5 pro to be available in my country (though it is going to take a while since Apply doesn't officially distribute its products here, gotta wait for private sellers to import and even when they do, the new products are normally priced 20-30% more for the first few months). Plus, m5 pro will probably be less powerful than m4 max for gaming.

 

[roydan]

Bought this:
Apple MacBook Pro 14" Z1ML-CTO6-HB M5 Pro 18C CPU 20C GPU, 48GB, 1TB, Standard display, Space Black.

Not sure what all the letters mean.

 

[RiskyStuff]

Bought this:
Apple MacBook Pro 14" Z1ML-CTO6-HB M5 Pro 18C CPU 20C GPU, 48GB, 1TB, Standard display, Space Black.

Not sure what all the letters mean.
View attachment 5148

It's not that expensive. Real good product in affordable pricing category.

Now, it's not a joke, it's not sarcasm or anything like that.

 

[BlogPro]

I do some pretty heavy dev work and my main work horse is a Macbook Air M5 with 32 gigs of RAM - 15” version.

Never a dull moment with this machine.

I saw the Macbook Pro as well but somehow it looked too clunky for me, as compared to the Air.

Got the Midnight Black version and it's a sexy beast.

Does everything I need and more.

 

[RiskyStuff]

I do some pretty heavy dev work and my main work horse is a Macbook Air M5 with 32 gigs of RAM - 15” version.

Never a dull moment with this machine.

I saw the Macbook Pro as well but somehow it looked too clunky for me, as compared to the Air.

Got the Midnight Black version and it's a sexy beast.

Does everything I need and more.

Team Air 13 inches. I don't have, but I would if I could.

Is it good for AI models?

 

[TheVigilante]

Bought this:
Apple MacBook Pro 14" Z1ML-CTO6-HB M5 Pro 18C CPU 20C GPU, 48GB, 1TB, Standard display, Space Black.

Not sure what all the letters mean.
View attachment 5148

That's a powerful machine enough to last for 5+ years I believe?

 

[BlogPro]

Team Air 13 inches. I don't have, but I would if I could.

Is it good for AI models?

I was about to order online when I decided to hit the local store and see for myself.

I have a Mac Mini M4 that is plugged into two 27inch monitors at work. Helps me multitask.

So moving down to a 13 inch didn't look that appealing. The 15 inch was just perfect.

Another thing being, I might be losing my 20/20 vision. I mean I don't wear glasses atm, but something tells me I am due a visit to an ophthalmologist pretty soon.

//

As for AI models, I don't run any AI model inferences locally.

I mean people are doing fantastically well doing that with Ollama and lama.cpp - but for me personally, I like it when my things are online. I'll happily rent a GPU server from a provider or use temporary GPU from Vultr or DO to run a temporary inference to test things out.

But I've built and locally tested extremely complex workflows and it has never failed so far. I am talking 20 playwright worker instances running parallelly opening sites, logging in, storing cookies etc.

Or an elaborate ComfyUI influencer setup that generates videos online, downloads them, edits them, applies text overlays, stitches them using FFMpeg, applies audio and uploads them to Instagram. All happening on the local machine.

Post automatically merged: May 14, 2026

That's a powerful machine enough to last for 5+ years I believe?

Sorry for the double post, but roughly 7 years is how long Apple provides major software updates.

Macs, by design, last very long.

My first Mac was a 2014 Macbook Pro with 16 GB RAM and 512 SSD.

It lasted me a good five years and then another 3 as a secondary machine. I think the last major OS upgrade was towards the end of Covid.

I was charging it at a hotel room when travelling and they had a power surge which fried the battery, charger and battery unit. Or else it would've lasted longer.

I know Apple is known for planned obsolescence, but I think it happens more with iPhones than Mac.

 

[roydan]

It's not that expensive. Real good product in affordable pricing category.

Now, it's not a joke, it's not sarcasm or anything like that.

Yeah it was surprisingly cheap.

I do some pretty heavy dev work and my main work horse is a Macbook Air M5 with 32 gigs of RAM - 15” version.

Never a dull moment with this machine.

I saw the Macbook Pro as well but somehow it looked too clunky for me, as compared to the Air.

Got the Midnight Black version and it's a sexy beast.

Does everything I need and more.

Yeah it's very 'square' I was pretty disappointed but I just wanted to get this over with. Took me months to make a decision and at some point I just picked one and bought it.

That's a powerful machine enough to last for 5+ years I believe?

I hope. Had the last one for about 5 years.

 

[BlogPro]

Yeah it's very 'square' I was pretty disappointed but I just wanted to get this over with. Took me months to make a decision and at some point I just picked one and bought it..

It's a fantastic machine, no doubt. Plus you're in the territory where it's impossible to go wrong. And you've upgraded from the standard specs as well.

At 48 Gigs of unified memory and the 15/16 core CPU and GPU - your work is going to be all about speed now. The computer won't give you an excuse to complain Haha.

Did you get the nano-texture display upgrade?

 

[roydan]

It's a fantastic machine, no doubt. Plus you're in the territory where it's impossible to go wrong. And you've upgraded from the standard specs as well.

At 48 Gigs of unified memory and the 15/16 core CPU and GPU - your work is going to be all about speed now. The computer won't give you an excuse to complain Haha.

Did you get the nano-texture display upgrade?

No I got the regular display. Couldn't be bothered with that to be honest.
But I got the 18 core thingy instead of the 16. Heared it's better for AI work. Not that sure but it made sense so I went with it.

 

[SilverClouds]

That's a powerful machine enough to last for 5+ years I believe?

...then someone like me getting this as refurb afterwards

 

[t2van]

That's a powerful machine enough to last for 5+ years I believe?

I was about to order online when I decided to hit the local store and see for myself.

I have a Mac Mini M4 that is plugged into two 27inch monitors at work. Helps me multitask.

So moving down to a 13 inch didn't look that appealing. The 15 inch was just perfect.

Another thing being, I might be losing my 20/20 vision. I mean I don't wear glasses atm, but something tells me I am due a visit to an ophthalmologist pretty soon.

//

As for AI models, I don't run any AI model inferences locally.

I mean people are doing fantastically well doing that with Ollama and lama.cpp - but for me personally, I like it when my things are online. I'll happily rent a GPU server from a provider or use temporary GPU from Vultr or DO to run a temporary inference to test things out.

But I've built and locally tested extremely complex workflows and it has never failed so far. I am talking 20 playwright worker instances running parallelly opening sites, logging in, storing cookies etc.

Or an elaborate ComfyUI influencer setup that generates videos online, downloads them, edits them, applies text overlays, stitches them using FFMpeg, applies audio and uploads them to Instagram. All happening on the local machine.

Post automatically merged: May 14, 2026

Sorry for the double post, but roughly 7 years is how long Apple provides major software updates.

Macs, by design, last very long.

My first Mac was a 2014 Macbook Pro with 16 GB RAM and 512 SSD.

It lasted me a good five years and then another 3 as a secondary machine. I think the last major OS upgrade was towards the end of Covid.

I was charging it at a hotel room when travelling and they had a power surge which fried the battery, charger and battery unit. Or else it would've lasted longer.

I know Apple is known for planned obsolescence, but I think it happens more with iPhones than Mac.

Yeah if you not worried about latest OS.

My 13in Air is from 2012 and my office Mac mini is 2012. Still going strong I think although I'm replacing both this year. Going for an Air at home and probably a windows machine at work.


@roydan let me know how you get on with it.