How well does Stable Diffusion perform on Macbook M4? How much RAM is recommended for UI/UX designers at minimum?

[Rumormac]

Can the base model M4 run Stable Diffusion? I tried using M1 (8GB/128GB) but it couldn't handle it at all. I'm wondering how the base M4 (16GB/512GB) would perform?
Or what are the recommended M4 specifications?
If anyone has experience running Stable Diffusion on other M4 configurations, please also share how the performance was.

I mainly use Midjourney for creating pictures at the moment and I'm wondering if Stable Diffusion could be a replacement. I'm not a heavy MJ user - I just occasionally use it when creating assets/materials.

Additionally, I'd like to ask designers who use Figma - when using a MacBook, what's the recommended minimum RAM? Please include your MacBook model. I currently use an M1(8G/128G) and work on two Figma projects simultaneously, sometimes with one to two windows open per project. I'm finding that the RAM is quite insufficient.

I also frequently use memory-intensive applications like CapCut, Photoshop, and note-taking software (not necessarily all at once, but I use them quite frequently).

I'm currently considering the M4 with 16GB RAM but I'm not sure if that's enough for my needs, or if I should upgrade to 24GB. I'd appreciate if anyone with relevant experience could share their insights. Thank you.

 

[artifex]

Good questions. I don't have answers, but I'm hoping my reply bumps the visibility

Was actually just considering putting off my m4 mini purchase another week so I could fit the 24/512 one in. More ram is better for models, that is always true. On the other hand, Apple rates the bandwidth at 120 GB/s, and the RTX 3060 card I have been using previously (on a pc) is supposedly 360 GB/s. So the actual iterations per second will likely be slower (except I won't have to move stuff back and forth between CPU and GPU memory since it's unified, so the whole job length might be similar) but I can do much bigger images. Definitely seems better for trying full Flux.dev and not just the cut down NF4 version I use now (3060 only has 12GB vram).

Looks like Mac people have been installing SD either using DiffusionBee or A1111 or ComfyUI+Homebrew (or maybe +Pinokio?), but I hope whoever pops in here can give us both guidance on that. Remember, though, you're probably going to have this computer for a few years, and so far you can't upgrade the RAM (expensive hacks on the Mini notwithstanding). So get as much as you think you might be needing then for all the other stuff you run, like Photoshop. (BTW, if you can afford an M4 Pro, the memory bandwidth on that is 273 GB/s.)