12 articles · newest first
A 128GB Strix Halo mini PC and a 128GB Mac Studio give an AI model about the same 96GB to work with. One costs $3,449 at Framework's US store, the other $5,099 at Apple's. Here is what the extra $1,650 buys, and what it doesn't.
Desktop · 3d ago · 13 min
I mapped every Mac mini and Mac Studio Apple sells today, all 17 configs, against 13 popular local AI models. If your biggest model is 27B-class, the math says a $1,299 Mac mini holds what a $3,099 Mac Studio holds.
Voltage · Oct 4 · 16 min
A quality Q4 Scout wants ~62GB — which no single consumer GPU has, but a 96–128GB Strix Halo or Mac Studio holds whole. Why unified memory is Scout's natural home, and the one honest trade-off.
Voltage · Sep 22 · 8 min
Llama 4 didn't dethrone Qwen3 or DeepSeek — but its MoE design and huge context make it worth understanding. What Scout and Maverick actually are, the memory trap that catches everyone, and what you really need to run it.
Tensor · Sep 22 · 10 min
The M5 Ultra tops out at 512GB of unified memory — here's the actual math on whether that beats a real GPU for running big local models.
Voltage · Aug 26 · 8 min
StorageReview ran real benchmarks on every local-AI desktop you can buy in 2026 — and the winner isn't what most shoppers assume.
Voltage · Aug 18 · 7 min
A book-sized box with 128GB of unified memory can run models no single consumer GPU can hold. The honest hub for the whole category — Strix Halo, Mac Studio and DGX Spark — and when a GPU still wins.
Voltage · Aug 4 · 10 min
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.
Tensor · Jul 30 · 9 min
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.
Tensor · Jul 28 · 9 min
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.
Voltage · Jul 27 · 9 min
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.
Tensor · Jul 22 · 9 min
both give you ~128GB of unified memory for local AI, and their memory bandwidth is almost the same — 273 vs 256 GB/s. so the $2,700 gap buys something else entirely. here's what, and who it's actually for.
Voltage · Jul 19 · 6 min