unified memory

4 articles · newest first

the best laptop for running local AI in 2026 is a MacBook — and it's not close, for one reason

Gaming laptops have fast GPUs, but they cap out at 16GB of VRAM. A MacBook Pro's unified memory goes to 128GB. For running AI models on the go, memory wins.

Lena Fischer · Jul 30 · 9 min

Mac Mini M4 or M4 Pro for local AI? the answer comes down to one number you set at checkout

Both run local models silently and efficiently, but the gap between them for AI isn't the chip — it's the memory bandwidth and how much you can buy. Here's which Mac Mini to get.

Lena Fischer · Jul 28 · 9 min

Macro shot of a system-on-chip on a circuit board, representing the Strix Halo APU

how to turn 128GB of RAM into 96GB of AI memory: the Strix Halo VRAM trick nobody explains

AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 lets you hand up to 96GB of its unified memory to the GPU — enough to run a 70-billion-parameter model on a mini-PC. Here's exactly how much you can allocate, how to do it, and the catch.

Ravi Malhotra · Jul 27 · 9 min

Apple Mac mini held in one hand, showing its small size

the $1,999 Mac mini runs a 30B model in near silence on 40 watts. here's the catch nobody puts in the headline

A palm-sized box that sips power and runs mid-size local models is a genuinely great story — until you ask it to process a long prompt. What the M4 Pro Mac mini is brilliant at, and the one thing it's quietly bad at.

Lena Fischer · Jul 22 · 9 min