Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

rvz

> M5 Ultra features a massive amount of high-bandwidth unified memory, up to 512GB, and delivers a staggering 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth that is 50 percent higher than M3 Ultra. Apple never needed to participate in the AI race to zero. Because they were already at the finish line years ago building their own chips that can run large >100B parameter AI models locally.

delduca

I know they are a phone company, but I think they should focus on local models software, not only hardware.

anshumankmr

>fluid frame rates in demanding games like Mixtape. not getting on that bandwagon but wasn't that not the most demanding game as its a just a nonstop cutscene.

callamdelaney

Usable ram amounts in late October

SXX

96GB -> 256GB upgrade costs 4000 GBP in UK or $5460. $34 for GB. In US its $4000 upgade so $25 for 1GB. Also: > 512GB memory option for M5 Ultra coming late October

FuckButtons

~12k for 80 core gpu with 256gb, 14k in October for 512gb. Seems like that could make for a very descent on prem inference server.

mrtksn

Apple Studio with maxed out M5 Ultra, 256GB RAM and 16TB storage is 18,299$. The 512GB RAM version apparently is coming in October, considering that the difference between 96GB and 256GB is priced at 4000$, the 512GB upgrade must be eye watering. So, on the mini the RAM upgrade runs at 25$ per GB on all tiers, the same as the Studio therefore the upgrade to 512 will probably cost 6400$. The fully maxed out Apple Studio then will be 24699$. It's 17199$ if you don't upgrade the storage(1TB). Nevertheless I itch to have one :)

tester756

When will Apple's Mx CPUs use Intel's 18A/18A-P/14A node(s)?

SilverSlash

The 512GB Ultra is amazing, sure. But who is it for exactly? VC funded big spender founders? In that case why would they need local AI? The ultra rich enthusiast? But there can't be too many of those. So who actually buys these?

xattt

Tangential, but what would be the ideal Mac option for home movie editing, casual gaming and amateur CAD fiddling in Fusion? I plan on maximizing my residual student benefits, and taking advantage of education pricing.

recursivedoubts

Even w/the pricing spike, inflation adjusted we are back to roughly the prices of a new Mac SE/30 for something that can beat a turing test w/o sweating. I yield the floor to no one when it comes to pessimism, but that's incredible.

paxys

More validated by the day that my $450 M4 Mac Mini (16GB) was the best deal in computing for a long, long time.

nelsonic

Sick. Particularly stoked for the 10gb network card ($100 option) when using the Mac Mini as a server. Just wish the memory + NVMe prices could come back down to pre ai-goldrush prices. As $2999 for the M5 Pro with 64GB RAM feels painfully over-priced.

amazingamazing

I should have bought a 100 m4 mac minis when I had the chance. Thanks hyperscalers for buying all the supply and renting it back. A m4 mac mini is better than al of these per dollar, msrp adjusted. Hopefully by the end of the decade China figures out manufacturing at scale and fixes this.

walrus01

If I compare to like, January 2024, the prices for RAM these days make me want to weep.

nonewideas

Cannot believe "moar transistors" is still the only idea they have.

stuff4ben

M5 Pro in a Mac Mini with 64GB RAM and 10Gbit Ethernet seems like the perfect Jellyfin server and Ollama test server. All for just over $3K (I specced with only 1TB local nvme).

Roark66

The page says 170G/s memory bandwidth for the NPU and 1.2T/s for the GPU. Why the discrepancy if it's all "unified memory"? The former is nothing to write home about as far as AI compute is. The latter is really nice. Which one is it you can run local models on? I suppose the NPU only.

ciupicri

> M6 supports up to 32GB of unified memory to multitask across demanding apps I can't believe that Apple still comes with this bullshit like 32 GBs is a lot. It's a lot for video memory - vRAM, but not RAM.

coldtea

> M6 supports up to 32GB of unified memory Is this a joke? > Additionally, M5 Ultra features a massive amount of high-bandwidth unified memory, up to 512GB Now we're talking. But at what cost?