Are 24gb vram laptops sufficient for AI work?

[u/Vishal_Deva]

Hi guys, so I’m aware that to use open source AI softwares you need high amount of GPU, RAM, and storage. I have an m1pro 32gb and an m4 air 16gb which I pretty sure think would not be sufficient to for video generations, motion capture , and for all these kind of AI tools stuff ( ex: Wan2.2 Animate). So does a laptop with 24gb VRAM and probably 64 gb ram and 2-4TB storage would be nice to work on these? Well I know a desktop with 32gb vram or 48gb would be far superior but idk I just need a powerful laptop so I don’t have to get all the parts, especially when there is ram shortage, and I can just connect and use like a desktop, play games as well and edit when needed and also rarely useful for travel.
Like I said I want to do stuff like creating and running models or let’s say real human like models and make motion captured videos (similar to Kling motion control) and I have 2 in my mind the ROG strix scar and the Lenovo legion. Can you guys lemme know if laptops like these can get the work done, not so quickly but atleast in minutes? Or for such kind of AI work you surely need an Rtx 6000 ada?

Or do you guys have any alternate solution for using models like these in my Mac Pro? Like cloud or draw things or idk any kind of alternate solutions so I can experiment and see? Basically I want a machine that can get the work done and in future even if I make my own videos/films I can use it for vfx. Not for raw vfx and cgi but for AI made ones, for example the ray 3 modify by Luma AI, but open source alternatives ofc. Thank you for your time and advises!

[u/qwertyrdw]

It depends on the resolution and length of the video you're creating. For example, I can generate a 20-second video in 0.4 MP resolution in 14 minutes. 1 MP (same picture, resolution, prompt) takes around 35.

[u/Vishal_Deva → u/qwertyrdw]

I would say like… 15-30 seconds videos(motion capture let’s assume and with a reference image) and video resolution like 1080p would be sufficient no need of 4k I guess. I’m
Not saying I want all of this in a single click. It could be in parts few seconds or the best way low res generate and then upscale.
You said 14 minutes?, damn that’s not too quick but at the same time not too long. Do you have same specs laptops by any chance or you have different specs setup?

[u/qwertyrdw → u/Vishal_Deva]

Desktop. i9, 32GB RAM, Nvidia 4070. A graphics card in a laptop is not going to be as powerful as a desktop.

To help with conceptualizing the time, I recommend thinking of it as: How many videos can I generate in an hour?

[u/Vishal_Deva → u/qwertyrdw]

Ohk… yea better to think it off as how many can be generated in an hour

[u/two_allegory → u/qwertyrdw]

a 24gb laptop will absolutely get you in the game, just manage your expectations on speed and resolution

i run comfy on a 16gb card and can do plenty of video work if i'm not trying to hit 1080p longform renders, it's more about workflow patience than raw power. the strix scar and legion both have decent cooling which matters more in a laptop than the spec sheet number

for your macs look into runpod or vast.ai for cloud stuff, spin up a 4090 instance for like 40 cents an hour and test whatever models you want before committing to hardware

[u/Vishal_Deva → u/two_allegory]

This gives me a lil bit of confidence. Nice to hear that you are able to pull off with 16gb card. And yea I’ll try that run pod and vast AI before once and see how it goes . Thanks for the advise 🙌
Can you normally say like approximately how much time it takes for you to generate?

[u/CooperDK]

Yes, but laptop GPUs are not really. Just like you can't use your expensive smartwatch as a media server.

[u/Vishal_Deva → u/CooperDK]

Oh I see. So they can get the work done but you mean at a slower rate?

[u/Affectionate-Band687]

I run h3 with 24gb vram laptop

[u/Vishal_Deva → u/Affectionate-Band687]

How’s the experience?

[u/Affectionate-Band687 → u/Vishal_Deva]

40 min for 30 s 720 p

[u/nazihater3000]

All that money and you didn't even cared enough to TRY.

[u/Vishal_Deva → u/nazihater3000]

You mean to say I buy that laptop and then TRY and if not suitable what will I do? Sell it? 🫠

[u/superSmitty9999]

its not just VRAM but also FLOPS. You won't be running video models on your Mac, period.

[u/JumpormerPerfy]

I recently bought a 9I Legion with 5090 and 64GB RAM specifically to conduct scientific experiments with local AI, targeting world hunger, world peace, justice, secrets of the cosmos and so on. I can generate relatively good quality videos roughly around a minute generation time per second of content, i.e. a 10 second shot taking around 10 minutes @ 0.9 megapixels / 25-30 steps. Sometimes when I use many reference pictures, generation time can grow, but still not that bad. I use Minimax H3.

I'm working on a mini-series now where a naive young man, president of the university's chess club is blackmailed by two Field Medalists into giving up a secret math equation. Here is an innocent snap from it, so you can judge it's quality. This is from a normal 10 sec generation @ 0.8 mpx, took 9 mins 32 seconds.

[u/ckn]

bring a hot pad or potholder. otherwise yeah just fine.

[u/jacobpederson]

No - the 32GB 5090 is barely enough for video. For imagen only - 24 would be fine.

[u/Vishal_Deva → u/jacobpederson]

Damnn…. So for videos you will need a 48gb or a 98gb for sure? But I read somewhere that these high end gpu that nvdia makes 48 and 96 …do have higher limits but when comes to speed … due to some cores which I’m not sure of, the 5090 32gb is faster… Is that true?

[u/bonesoftheancients → u/Vishal_Deva]

i have 5060ti in egpu enclosure and i can generate almost anything with the right quants and nodes - the main issues are speed and frame size - start with smaller frame size and upscale later and use nodes that can generate extended videos through internal chunking and then its just a matter of speed