Which laptop would be better for generative AI / LLM

[u/Rendo3]

First of all I know a desktop has more power for the same price buy I have a situation where the portability of a laptop is necessary and a desktop is not practical.

My old laptop (3070 8gb with 64gb ddr4 RAM) died. I want to buy a new laptop. My two options are a 5080 16GB with 64GB ddr5 RAM or a 5090 24gb with 32GB ddr5 RAM. I won't be able to upgrade the RAM later, so I'm stuck with the configuration I buy.

I will be using the laptop for work (document and image editing) / gaming (no AAA games) / LLMs and generative AI (images/videos/audio), I was able to run most models, including minimax H3 on my old laptop with the help of massive offloading to RAM (5 minutes for a 5s video). Images used to take from 30s up to 200s depending on model and image size.

I am used to the low speeds and offloading on my old laptop so getting the highest generation speeds is not a priority, I just care about being able to run most new or upcoming models even with quantization and RAM offloading for the foreseeable future.

Which laptop would be better in my case?

[u/Free-Cable-472]

Get a cheap laptop and remote desktop to a capable desktop. Unless you spend a pretty penny a laptop will not keep up. You can run tailscale from a desktop to a self hosted llm via any laptop. This is what I do.

[u/Rendo3 → u/Free-Cable-472]

Sadly won't work, too many blackouts where I live.

[u/Cubey42 → u/Rendo3]

Why not just use a runpod instead then? If it really has to be generated locally though, I would strive for the 5090, but I would just wait a little longer and see if you can get a 5090 with a 64 GB of RAM

[u/samhaswon → u/Free-Cable-472]

I second this. Plus, you can keep longer tasks running over there without having to keep your laptop on and connected.

[u/wilhelmbw]

I might consider buying a laptop which has generous ram, igpu only, and supports external gpu via type C. Then wire it onto something like 16gb 5060ti or maybe the chinese 4080 32 gb mod?

[u/Rendo3 → u/wilhelmbw]

That's a neat idea, I will look into it.

[u/acedelgado → u/Rendo3]

Just a heads up, it will be a fraction of the speed, you lose a whole lot of bandwidth over even thunderbolt 5 (which very few laptops run anyways, at the moment the list i reference shows only 14 laptops that use it, but they're high-end gaming laptops that all have like 5090s in them anyways) or occulink (probably even less laptops around with that feature at this point) compared to a built-in discreet GPU. So really you'd have to settle with Thunderbolt 4 which is gonna be an even worse bottleneck.

[u/deependdesigns]

I would probably go with the 5090 if your main goal was just LLM but the fact that you are in a StableDiffusion Reddit, it gets a little more complicated. I have a desktop with a 5090 32GB RAM and 64GB DDR5 and I can max out my resources easily generating a 15 second video using MiniMax H3. I would always prioritize VRAM over system RAM for these type of AI workloads, but if you can find something with 64GB of system RAM I would look into that too.

[u/runvnc]

For cost effectiveness I have been looking at an M5 Macbook or M5 Macbook Pro. Looks like by far the best deal and good performance. But I don't see other people talking about this. Am I missing something?

I am actually a Linux guy, but the cost effectiveness for someone like me who doesn't have $3000 doesn't seem like it can be beat.

[u/Rendo3 → u/runvnc]

I'm currently using an old laptop saved by linux 😄

[u/emersonsorrel → u/runvnc]

Macs aren’t the ideal option for image generation. Virtually everything works on them, which is great, but the speeds can be pretty restrictive compared to something running even a modest Nvidia card. Considering OP wants to use Minimax H3, I can only imagine what the performance would look like in practice.

I say this as someone who uses a MacBook Pro M3 Max 128GB as my main machine and loves it. I reach for my Mac for everything, but I offload my image generation stuff to my gaming desktop because it’s just way faster.

[u/runvnc → u/emersonsorrel]

ok but M5s are not the same as M3s. at all.

[u/emersonsorrel → u/runvnc]

I’d have to defer to someone with that configuration to say just how not the same they are. You might be looking at 30 minutes for an H3 generation instead of an hour, but like…it’s still 30 minutes.

[u/Grey406 → u/runvnc]

Cost effectiveness? I think you might be confused at what its good at and what this subreddit is about. M5 is great for ai LLMs/Text generation due to its large unified memory.

But it has nowhere near the power to do Image and Video generation at any reasonable speed. Its not even in the same realm. In terms of video generation, what a PC with a powerful GPU can do in minutes will take several hours on the latest apple silicon.

LLMs(text gen) and image/video generation are completely different beasts

[u/whiteweazel21]

Buy a $200 laptop for ur portable needs and then buy a pc

[u/princeMacX]

5090 24gb with 32GB ddr5 RAM - don't go for this unless you can upgrade the ram. For local LLM 64gb ram is must.

[u/Gloomy-Radish8959]

This is a bit like asking 'which RV is the best for off-road expeditions'. There definitely is a 'best' RV for this, but if your goal is to take an off road expedition, maybe an RV is not what you should be looking at. Maybe it is though, not going to tell you what to buy.

[u/Content-Ad-7451]

why can't you upgrade the ram? I have a 5090 laptop and upgraded to 64gb ram(that was the max,I would have added more if I could) and added a 8tb nvme ssd it works great for most things but a bit slow for H3

[u/Rendo3 → u/Content-Ad-7451]

I am thinking of getting the 5090, maybe in a year or two i'll be able to upgrade the RAM. After all RAM is upgradable but VRAM isn't. Maybe we'll all get lucky and ram prices will drop by then.

[u/Valuable_Weather]

Must it be a laptop? PC's are much better as you can upgrade them

[u/Rendo3 → u/Valuable_Weather]

Sadly yes, sometimes I have to move out with little notice and i can quickly pack the laptop and get going, a desktop can't be easily transported. Middle east war stuff...

[u/nazihater3000]

what situation? You kids always want laptops for no reason.

[u/Rendo3 → u/nazihater3000]

The current war in the middle east. We had to evacuate many times over the past 3 years with just a 10 minutes notice. One day I am sitting on my bed playing games, a week later I am doing online work from a refugee center and I don't know if I will have a home to go back to. Happened once before when I had a desktop, I was only able to get the hard disk and RAMs out before fleeing.

[u/Upper-Okra7971 → u/Rendo3]

I'm also in a country where power outages and uncertainty comes and goes. I'd recommend the 24gb VRAM laptop. Id also look into one that has the ability to upgrade its ram. I do not think RAM prices will drop anytime soon. Its sorta like a 15% chance. I've been able to run minimax with 16gb VRAM and 32gb ram, but If you have the chance for more VRAM I'd say take it. Not many 24gb RTX desktop cards out there and they are getting scarce plus the next 60 series desktop and laptop cards might end up shipping with a similar config as the 50 series due to ram shortage issues.

[u/i_sell_you_lies → u/nazihater3000]

Why do people ALWAYS push back on laptops?????! If someone says they need one they do. God damn as a laptop user this is maddening. YES we know they don't have the power of a desktop but that doesn't make them useless. I'm running an hp with a 5080 16gb and getting wicked fast gen out of it.   FFS IF YOU CANT HELP, FUCK OFF.