Should we get Apple silicon or a 24gb GPU + 128gb ram?

I am planning to buy hardware to run local models. I'm not sure what kind of hardware is best and what will I be able to run. I'm torn between getting a used M1 Max 64gb Macbook for €1500, M3 Max 128gb Macbook for €3500 or build my own computer from with a 24gb graphics card and 128gb. I would like to ask what can I expect to run on each type on hardware and what speeds should I expect? I already have a macbook pro m2 Max 32gb but I find it to have barely enough ram to run models like Qwen3.6 35b a3b with usuable context without going into swap memory. If I try SSD streaming it becomes extremely slow. 4 -10 tks (barely usable speeds for agentic work). The worst part is Prompt processing. It can take 50-60 minutes to process 40-60k tokens. Even when I try to run the model fully within RAM using GPU the prompt processing speed is still pretty slow and can take 20 minutes to process 40k tokens. I can get speeds of 15-20 tks when using GPU + RAM. Here is the configuration I use: Model: Qwen3.6 35b a3b at q4 xs (18gb) + 60k tk context window + Q8 KV Cache. What should I do? Is there any way to improve speeds for agentic work on my current set up? If not then should I upgrade my hardware and if so then what kind of hardware should I get? My goal is run the smartest model possible on reasonably priced hardware at good speeds. Thanks ❤️ submitted by /u/Guilty-Support-584 [link] [comments]

Source: r/LocalLLaMA | 2026-09-16

Related