Local LLMs Can Code on High‑End Macs—Only If They Pass These Hurdles
Birgitta Böckeler ran 35‑billion‑parameter models on M3 Max and M5 Pro laptops, testing agentic coding from file edits to longer conversations. She finds that RAM limits, response speed, and tool‑calling reliability are the gatekeepers, and only the Qwen 3.6 35B MoE consistently produced usable code without excessive review.