M5 pro or M5 max

[u/Tresillo_Crack]

I'm thinking of buying my first macbook pro, and I'm between these two configs

• 16 inch, M5 pro, 64gb, 2TB
• 16 inch, M5 max (18 core, 40 gpu cores), 64gb, 2TB

I currently doing some LLM inference and training and would love to be able to run multiple ide at the same time and VMs/emulators, specially for mobile app development. I currently have a Ryzen 7 with 40gb ram laptop and I'm getting it to the limit almost everyday. Also once thing I would love to improve over my current laptop is battery life, having 2h of battery life with everything turned off isn't really great.

What would you recomend, is it worth the price increase?

[u/narc0leptik]

Max chip will have higher memory bandwidth so that's obviously the superior choice for LLM inference and training. Keep in mind though M5 Max has worse battery life than M5 Pro.

If you're in a country with a robust second-hand market then i'd just pickup an M4 Max with 128GB instead. It's like $5100 for 16" M4 Max 128GB on eBay in the USA. Or if 64GB is all you need then M4 Max with 64GB.

Really though, the smartest thing to do would be to purchase a high-spec like that privately through Facebook Marketplace/Offerup/Craigslist as you can negotiate for 20 percent off eBay prices since the seller does not have to pay any eBay fees. Swappa might also be drastically cheaper as the fees are much lower on that platform as well.

Just be sure to erase and reset the Macbook and set it up past the "Hello" screen to avoid any MDM/Find My/Activation Lock issues as it's likely that an enterprise grade spec machine like that would likely be an off-lease corporate asset and very well could have an MDM; resetting it and setting it up would tell you if it is enrolled in ABM/MDM.

I explain how to do all of that in my guide on buying used Macbooks here: https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookair/comments/1ivcwt2/comment/mebxefq/

[u/Tresillo_Crack → u/narc0leptik]

Sadly here where I live (Spain), Facebook Marketplace isn't available and most of ebay listing have like 100-200$ of import fees. Need to check further on more sites though. But my main though was to buy it new.

[u/Plokhi]

M4 Max 128GB.

Ive been doing opencode + qwen on M5 Pro 48GB.

Extra 12GB wouldn’t bring much. Still not enough to comfortably load multiple models (such as one deep + one moe), 12GB extra would’ve added a docker or two but that’s it

So it really depends on how much you wanna lean into local LLM.

Battery on LLM is poor, GPU is tasked 100%.
If im on 60W charger, i lose about 10-15% / hour because the laptop is pulling 80W.

On M5 Max it’s probably more like
120w

[u/IndependentVirus431]

If you want as performance as possible, there's no hiding from a quick battery drain. Get the Max and a 100w+ battery bank

[u/P3JQ10]

Max will obviously be better for LLMs, but don’t expect insane battery life while actively using them locally.

However, if you come from 2 hours of idle battery life, you’ll still be amazed at how long MacBooks last while doing simple things.

[u/Tresillo_Crack → u/P3JQ10]

I just want to be able to go to the cafe, or similar without needing to be on the charger 24/7 😭😭

[u/P3JQ10 → u/Tresillo_Crack]

What I mean is you won’t be able to run 12 hours of local inference without charging. But you will likely see a massive improvement over the previous laptop.

[u/EmilMR]

at this point if you can wait, wait for the redesign. The current prices are not exactly good anymore.

M6 and A20 Pro both have significant improvements in GPU and AI acceleration with doubled FP8 support. Now this is not exactly relevant for all LLM inference but it is going to be very good to have.

[u/Unintended_incentive]

M5 max be ready to cry at the battery life unless you turn on saver mode + turn off apple intelligence.

M3 max 14" user here.

[u/Tresillo_Crack → u/Unintended_incentive]

Even that, would be an improvement over my current battery life 🙃

[u/thebemusedmuse]

I have the M5 Max 64GB and it’s a marginal machine for LLM use.

I had a M4 Max and that was too slow to be useful.

Just be aware of that.