Comment by mft_

You’re not wrong that Apple’s memory prices are unpleasant, but also consider the competition - in this context (running LLMs locally) laptops with large amounts of fast memory that can be purposed for the GPU. This limits you to Apple or one specific AMD processor at present.

An HP Zbook with an AMD 395+ and 128Gb of memory apparently lists for $4049 [0]

An ASUS ROG Flow z13 with the same spec sells for $2799 [1] - so cheaper than Apple, but still a high price for a laptop.

[0] https://hothardware.com/reviews/hp-zbook-ultra-g1a-128gb-rev...

[1] https://www.hidevolution.com/asus-rog-flow-z13-gz302ea-xs99-...