Running LLMs and image generation locally is demanding. Here's what to look for — and where the MacLab Spec Score helps.
Running AI tools on your own machine — local language models, image generation, fine-tuning — is one of the most demanding things you can ask of a laptop in 2026.
What actually matters for AI
- GPU and VRAM — dedicated graphics with plenty of memory do the heavy lifting.
- Unified memory — on Apple Silicon, generous unified memory punches above its weight for local models.
- Cooling — sustained workloads need a laptop that won't throttle.
Read the AI-Ready score
Every laptop on MacLab carries an AI-Ready Spec Score built exactly for this — so you can compare machines at a glance instead of decoding GPU model numbers.
Filter the shop by dedicated graphics, or let the Finder weight AI workloads for you.