€6k AI dev laptop: 64–128GB unified memory MacBook Pro or CUDA NVIDIA?
ClerkBeginning961 · reddit · 2026-08-25
The author is choosing a platform for years of software development plus AI/data-science work, with €5,000 for the laptop: a 64GB (or 128GB) unified-memory M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pro versus a CUDA-capable NVIDIA laptop with much less GPU memory, more heat, noise and worse battery. Typical workloads include Docker-based web dev, Python/Jupyter, dataset work, ML experiments and local inference; large training goes to cloud GPUs, but the machine must stay useful offline for private local models.
The thread asks users of both platforms: when does a large unified-memory pool beat CUDA for local inference; which workflows still require a local NVIDIA GPU; how painful is developing on MPS/MLX and moving training to remote CUDA; whether mobile NVIDIA GPUs justify their thermal compromises; and whether a strong daily driver plus rented cloud CUDA beats an all-in-one portable machine.
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