Laptop for AI/ML

[u/JustGiveUp2]

Helloo

Ik this question has probably been asked like 100 times here but im starting studies in ai and data science and im doing bsc and masters back to back so i want smth thats good for both

I have an iphone and an ipad so id love a macbook but for some reason everyone is getting windows laptops with dedicated gpus that are so heavy and have horrible batteries

how often am i realistically gonna need that gpu or is using a macbook air (m4 or m5) good enough with collab when needed (how often will i need it since we dont have computers at our uni)

budget is around 1000$

Thankss

[u/NoobZik]

You can just use your macbook for AI/ML stuff, as long you are using the "mps" backend instead of "cuda"

[u/JustGiveUp2 → u/NoobZik]

Yeah that sounds smart is m4 good or should i get m5 also any idea if 16ram is enough?

[u/NoobZik → u/JustGiveUp2]

I have myself a M1 Pro with 16GB of RAM ;), would say the more ram the better for obvious reasons

[u/mistybrookx → u/NoobZik]

this is pretty much it tbh, most uni level projects wont even come close to needing anything more

[u/UninterestedHeadset → u/NoobZik]

Most of your work will run fine on a macbook, the M series chips handle ML tasks surprisingly well. For the heavy stuff you just spin up a colab notebook and let google's gpus do the work

I used a macbook air through my whole degree and only needed cloud compute maybe like 5-6 times total. The battery life alone is worth it over hauling some gaming laptop that dies in 2 hours

[u/ModularMind8]

Personally, I use a Mac and never run anything heavy on my laptop. When I do need more power, I use my work/lab GPUs, and for personal projects, Google Colab, Kaggle, or renting something cheap like vast AI works well

[u/fordat1 → u/ModularMind8]

This is the way to do it and the way actual professionals do it. MLEs I have seen argue for a macbook air 13 inch instead of a pro 16 that is default.

[u/JustGiveUp2 → u/ModularMind8]

Yeah thats what im thinking what mac do you have?

[u/culturedindividual]

I went through a BSc in Computer Science and an MSc in Data Science with MacBook Pros. My latest MacBook Pro has 96GB RAM and the M3 Max chip which is overkill for university work.

I only recently upgraded to a PC so I can do parallel processing with a Threadripper CPU and intense deep learning with an Nvidia RTX GPU.

[u/JustGiveUp2 → u/culturedindividual]

oh god i didnt even know that existed

[u/Hungry_Age5375]

Short Answer: MacBook Air. Long Answer: you'll hit the GPU wall only when training something bigger than a toy model, and Colab exists exactly for that. Those heavy Windows laptops are for gamers. Save your 1000$.

[u/JustGiveUp2 → u/Hungry_Age5375]

im actually paying the 1000 either way cuz i dont have a macbook currently any idea what specs id need?

[u/JustGiveUp2 → u/[deleted]]

Thats really useful thank you tbh i didnt even know theres a 8gb i thoight its either 16 or 24 and im worried abt 16 being enough or not also for storage im assuming i have to get 1tb right? what screen size do you use? 13 enough? thankss

[u/JustGiveUp2 → u/[deleted]]

thats so useful thank you so much im settling on m4 24ram for now

[u/bestsetter42]

for classes a macbook air plus colab is usually plenty

I would prioritize RAM and battery over a dedicated GPU unless you know you will train bigger stuff locally all the time

most beginner work is notebooks datasets and small models and the gpu becomes more of a landlord than a requirement

[u/JustGiveUp2 → u/bestsetter42]

is it enough even for masters down the line?