Looking for thoughts on buying a new 14" M1 Max 64GB in mid 2023

[Balki B]

I have a several year old MBA and want to replace it with a more capable machine since it is somewhat painful to use now. The M1 Max 64GB with 2TB has a decent discount vs an M2 MBP, but does it makes sense to buy one now with current rumors of the M3 coming out? Or maybe I should buy a slightly less capable machine and upgrade sooner.

I want a machine I can use for a long time and I am also interested in running local LLMs to try out, but I realize they still require very powerful machines for larger models (30B to 65B depending on quantization). Perhaps smaller 1-3B models could be fine tuned at reasonable speeds for learning the process, but it's something I haven't looked into yet in terms of feasibility. Besides LLMs, I am interested in doing more video editing. I currently use my MBA for image editing and sound mastering.

 

[ilikewhey]

it really depends on your budget, and where you are located,

the m2 is a bit of a step bump in many's opinion, it also puts out more heat. the m3 will be a good jump due to 3nm vs 5nm on the m1 and m2.

regardless what you get, even the m1 will last quite the while.

you can get the m1 64gb spec for 2700 but i have seen them go down to 2500 occasionally.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1668294-REG/apple_mbp_14_sl_46_14_2_macbook_pro_with.html?ap=y&smp=ba_f1_ll

 

[Rnd-chars]

This really depends on how price and time sensitive you are.

If you’re short on time and money, a loaded M1 Max is an excellent machine and incredibly fast.

If you’re short on time and have a bit more money, a more expensive but otherwise similarly configured machine will be slightly faster in some scenarios and significantly faster in others (including ML)

If you have lots of time, an M3 Max will probably be out in about 10 - 13 months and will offer the highest performance and RAM capacity.

 

[Balki B]

Thanks for the comments. I think budget-wise I am hoping to spend less than $3K (located in the USA). If it were a perfect machine for LLMs I would be willing to spend more, but I am guessing probably any laptop is going to be a compromise compared to a PC tower with a couple of high-end nvidia cards.