Is the 16" M4 PRO 48GB the best value pick this generation?

[dedoom]

Hey Everyone,

I was researching the current gen upgrades and what we're getting with each of the processors etc. From what I can tell, it looks like M4 max is getting basically same core setup as M3 max, just faster.

M4 PRO on the other hand is getting a better setup across the board. Fairly close to the M4 max to be honest, and its faster than any M3.

Since Apple is not allowing M4 PRO & 48 GB configuration - and by jumping to M4 MAX you need to fork another $1000+ dollars for the bigger ram. Does that make the M4 PRO 48 GB the best value pick in general?

I am really struggling with whether or not to go all out on the MAX 64 GB or just stick with the best perceived value pick. I have 2 doubts in my mind when it comes to 48 GB ram.

1. Is it going to be future proof enough?
2. Is it going to be enough for my use cases below?

• Development of mobile and web apps
• Development of games (mostly mobile IOS + Android - probably using Unity for cross platform)
• Browsing the web, watching videos and movies here and there
• Video meetings and calls
• Potentially editing 4k footage that I record with my Sony Camera
• Maybe running some local LLMs, training if required etc

Any advice would be SUPER helpful, thank you so much!!

Cheers

 

[LogicalApex]

I just ordered my M4 Pro 48GB with local LLMs as a use case I have in mind.

I was torn between the M4 Pro 48GB or M4 Max 36GB. stepping up to the full M4 Max exceeds what I want to spend.

RAM won out for me for LLMs. The only loss I saw on the pro was less displays and slightly slower memory bandwidth. Not enough to justify the extra cost to go to the Max.

 

[cassmr]

• Development of mobile and web apps
• Development of games (mostly mobile IOS + Android - probably using Unity for cross platform)
• Browsing the web, watching videos and movies here and there
• Video meetings and calls
• Potentially editing 4k footage that I record with my Sony Camera
• Maybe running some local LLMs, training if required etc

Pretty much all of that you could do on m4. It will be better on an m4 pro, but you can do it comfortably on a m4. Marco Arment who makes the fairly popular ios overcast app recently said he uses an m2 macbook air to do ios app development on the go, and while he prefers his more powerful machine when at home, the experience is fine on the air.

I have a pretty similar use case to you, editing Sony A7iii photos and 4k videos (as well as what ever I upgrade to next), web and game dev, as well as all the standard web/office/meetings stuff.

I'm also curious about local LLMs but honestly, I cant see really justifying spending extra as they seem mostly a novelty to me atm, and i'm unlikely to do more than dip my toes in it at this stage. If this was of interest, then you do have the trade off between the m4 max 36 gb which with the extra GPU cores and higher memory bandwidth would give you better performance, but wouldnt be able to load as big models as the m4 pro 48gb, but its unclear to me how many models would fall in this gap nor how big the performance delta would be.

I think you may want to consider the m4 max, if your game dev is likely to involve 3D, as that would probably be a noticeable step up for those workflows.

The only thing additional to your use cases you didnt mention is that i'm likely to do is game, but gaming support is so minimal on mac, that i'm unsure if moving to max for better frames in a handful of games i may not like anyway really makes sense. It's quite a substantial saving going for the m4 pro 48 over the m4 max 36gb, so I think i'll just keep the money i'm probably already overspeccing going to 48gb.

Hope that helps.

 

[dinobear]

14" M4 Max 64gb 👍

 

[geoxd]

Very similar use case to yours. I'm also probably getting the M4 Pro 14/20/48/1. Forget about training any reasonably sized LLM on your macbook however. You'll probably just want to rent some NVIDIA GPUs for that in the cloud. Inference should be fine though.