The 2024 MacBook Pro generation: 14-inch M4 Pro (24/48GB, 273 GB/s, 30W)
and 16-inch M4 Max (36GB on the binned die at 410 GB/s, 64/128GB at
546 GB/s, 60W). Superseded by the M5 line in 2026 but still current
inventory at lower prices.
What it does well:
-
M4 Max 546 GB/s: within 11% of the M5 Max for a used-market price.
-
M4 Pro value: 273 GB/s and 48GB handles 70B dense models at 4-bit
with room for context, at a $2,399 laptop.
Where it falls short: no day-one MLX optimizations for the newest
Apple kernels land on M4 hardware after M5; the binned M4 Max (36GB) gives
up bandwidth to reach its lower price point.
Run it locally: Ollama, LM Studio, or mlx-lm. The
modeldex results rank checkpoints by fit
and estimated tok/s on this config.