Option A
HP ZBook Ultra G1a (Ryzen AI Max+ 395)
Workstation-class — 128GB unified memory for 70B local
$3,499
Check price →HP ZBook Ultra G1a vs MacBook Pro 14" M4 Max for local LLMs
The two best unified-memory laptops for running large language models offline. AMD Strix Halo with 128GB vs Apple M4 Max with 64GB — which one should an AI developer buy?
Published ·Last updated
Short answer
Buy the HP ZBook Ultra G1a if you need to run 70B+ models: 128GB of unified memory and 84 tok/s on 13B Q4. Buy the MacBook Pro M4 Max if battery (17h vs 11h), macOS and MLX matter more than maximum model size.
- HP ZBook Ultra G1a (Ryzen AI Max+ 395): AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo), 50 NPU TOPS, 128GB RAM, 84 tok/s on Llama 3 13B Q4, 11h battery, 1.5kg, $3,499.
- Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Max): Apple M4 Max (16-core CPU, 40-core GPU), 38 NPU TOPS, 64GB RAM, 78 tok/s on Llama 3 13B Q4, 17h battery, 1.62kg, $3,199.
Spec-by-spec
| Spec | HP ZBook Ultra G1a | Apple MacBook Pro 14" |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3,499 | $3,199 |
| Chip | AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo) | Apple M4 Max (16-core CPU, 40-core GPU) |
| NPU TOPS | 50 TOPS | 38 TOPS |
| RAM | 128 GB | 64 GB |
| LLM tokens/sec (13B Q4) | 84 tok/s | 78 tok/s |
| Sustained thermal score | 90/100 | 92/100 |
| Battery life | 11 h | 17 h |
| Weight | 1.5 kg | 1.62 kg |
| AIPC workload-fit | 9.8 | 9.7 |
Best for
70B+ models (128GB unified memory)HP
NPU TOPS (50 vs 38)HP
Battery lifeApple
PriceApple
Sustained thermalsTie
AIPC verdict
Buy the HP ZBook Ultra G1a if you need to run 70B+ models: 128GB of unified memory and 84 tok/s on 13B Q4. Buy the MacBook Pro M4 Max if battery (17h vs 11h), macOS and MLX matter more than maximum model size.
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