Apple M5 chip • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple M5 chip

#211

Post by tempoponet » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:31 PM UTC

imcritic wrote: post #55

mumber_typhoon wrote: post #44

The M5 MacBook Pro still gets the Broadcom WiFi chip but the M5 iPad Pros get the N1 and C1X (Sweet). All in all, apple is doing some incredible things with hardware. Software teams at apple really need to get their act together. The M1 itself is so powerful that nobody really needs to upgrade that for most things most people do on their computers. Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish doing the exact same task…

[flagged]

They support their phones for years longer than any vendor. This has been widely understood for probably 10+ years at this point.

There's plenty of room for criticism without a blanket conspiracy that doesn't match what most can observe.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#212

Post by mittermayr » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:31 PM UTC

This morning I was looking to maybe replace my Macbook Pro 2018, which had the horrible keyboard and finally seems to be crippled enough to not be fun to use anymore — now this!

However, I have been disappointed by Apple too many times (they wouldn't replace my keyboard despite their highly-flamed design-faux-pas, had to replace the battery twice by now, etc.)

Two years ago I finally stopped replacing their expensive external keyboards, which I used to buy once a year or every other (due to broken key-hinges) and have been so incredibly positively surprised by getting used to the MX Keys now. Much better built, incredible mileage for the price. Plus, I can easily switch and use them on my Windows PC, too.

So, about the Macbook — if I were to switch mobile computing over to Windows, what can I replace it with? My main machine is still a Mac Mini M2 Pro, which is perfect value/price. I like the Surface as a concept (replacable keyboards are a fantastic idea, battery however, super iffy nonsense), and I've got a Surface Pro 6 around, but it's essentially the same gloss-premium I don't need for my use.

Are there any much-cheaper but somewhat comparable laptops (12h+ battery, 1 TB disk, 16-32GB RAM, 2k+ Display) with reasonable build quality? Does bypassing the inherent premium of all the Apple gloss open up any useful options? Or is Apple actually providing the best value here?

Would love to hear from non-Surface, non-Thinkpad (I love it, but) folks who've got some recommendations for sub $1k laptops.

Not my main machine, but something I take along train rides, or when going to clients, or sometimes working offsite for a day.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#213

Post by chasd00 » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:32 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #90

alimbada wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using an iPhone 11 for 4 years now (also, reminder: the 11 was launched 2 years prior to when I bought mine). I replaced the battery earlier this year as it wouldn't last to the end of the day any more but besides that it's showing no slowdowns or any other issues.

Do you have iOS 26 on it? That pigdog is making my 15 Pro Max sweat and cry.

i don't see what the big deal is with iOS 26. it looks a little bit different, everything now seems to have some degree of transparency but everything works the same.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#214

Post by rsynnott » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:32 PM UTC

bloppe wrote: post #166

mumber_typhoon wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I have seen with iPhones is that the ram has gone from 4gb to 12gb very quickly compared to how it went from 1gb to 3gb. Apps used to use less ram but over the years apps have become big and more complicated. This is probably why iPhones feel sluggish because new iPhones have more memory and apps snap back faster as newer iPhones which also have faster storage and memory bandwidth to reduce latency of reading mo…

Apple has been proven to intentionally slow down older devices, but it's definitely not to inflate their profits. It's just a way to kindly preserve your old battery for you. And they try to keep it a secret from you so you don't get confused.

… Eh? It was neither. It was due to a design defect in a particular model; if voltage fell into a range that was perfectly possible with an aging but still functional battery, the SoC would shut off. The only viable software fix was to clock it down instead (there was an option to decline that and risk the abrupt shutoffs).

Not really sure what else they could have done there.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#215

Post by panick21_ » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

samwillis wrote: post #114

toddmorey wrote: post #6

The modern Apple feels like their hardware teams way outperforming the software teams.

Software is very easy to bloat, expand scope, and grow to do more than really needed, or just to release apps that are then forgotten about. Hardware is naturally limited in scope due to manufacturing costs, and doesn't "grow" in the same way. You replace features and components rather than constantly add to them. Apple needs someone to come in and aggressively cut scope in the software, removing features and product…

If you think hardware can't bloat, I suggest you look into the history of Intels attempt to replace x86. Or the VAX. Not to mention tons of minicomputer companies who built ever more complex minis. And not to mention the supercomputer startup bubble.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#216

Post by rsynnott » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #90

alimbada wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using an iPhone 11 for 4 years now (also, reminder: the 11 was launched 2 years prior to when I bought mine). I replaced the battery earlier this year as it wouldn't last to the end of the day any more but besides that it's showing no slowdowns or any other issues.

Do you have iOS 26 on it? That pigdog is making my 15 Pro Max sweat and cry.

Never, ever, upgrade to any Apple OS until at least .1. .0 is _always_ broken.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#217

Post by alberth » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

Apple is binning the iPad Pro chips:

   Storage      CPU
   ≤ 512GB      3 P-cores (and 6 E-cores)
   1TB+         4 P-cores (and 6 E-cores)

https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

Re: Apple M5 chip

#218

Post by pfortuny » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

modeless wrote: post #152

czbond wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am interested to learn why models move so much data per second. Where could I learn more that is not a ChatGPT session?

The models (weights and activations and caches) can fill all the memory you have and more, and to a first (very rough) approximation every byte needs to be accessed for each token generated. You can see how that would add up. I highly recommend Andrej Karpathy's videos if you want to learn details.

A very simplified version is: you need all the matrix to compute a matrix x vector operation, even if the vector is mostly zeroes. Edit: obviously my simplification is wrong but if you add up compression, etc… you get an idea.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#219

Post by criddell » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

I wish I could get the nano texture glass on a lower spec iPad Pro. I probably only need the 512 GB model and the glass is only available on 1 and 2 TB modes.

Re: Apple M5 chip

#220

Post by markus_zhang » Wed, Oct 15, 2025, 2:36 PM UTC

lou1306 wrote: post #184

markus_zhang wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pretty much see the Macbook as some fancy toys with mediocre software. Maybe the kernel is solid but other software are very meh, even comparing to Windows. But I'm definitely biased as a Windows/Linux user, and my hobby is system programming so naturally a Linux box is more suitable. Biggest grief with MacOS software: - Finder is very mediocre comparing to even File explorer in Windows - Scrollbar and other UI iss…

What makes Mac great is/was the ecosystem of 3rd party tools with great UI and features. Apple used to be good enough at writing basic 1st-party apps that would mostly just disappear into the background and let you do your thing, but they are getting increasingly "louder" which... may become a problem. I still agree that second hand Thinkpads are ridiculously better in terms of price/quality ratio, and also more envi…

I have to admit, every time I looked into screenshots of earlier Macs, like the 68K and PPC ones, I felt I loved the UI and such. I even bought a PPC laptop (I think it's a maxed out iBook with 1.5GB of RAM) to tinker with PPC assembly.

But I could be wrong. Maybe the earlier Macs didn't have great software either -- but at least the UI is better.