Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage

Post by rafaelmn » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #159

Thorrez wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apple buys and uses so much RAM across all its product lines that it’s in a better negotiating position than the likes of Framework or Raspberry Pi, but CEO Tim Cook acknowledged in the company’s last earnings call that memory pricing could begin to eat into Apple’s profit margins later this year.

There's also the fact that they were charging $200 to add 8GB of RAM before the prices went up, when that much RAM was something like $70 at retail . The problem then is that when the supply gets more expensive and you were already charging the maximally-extractive price to customers, they can't eat much more of a price increase, so instead most of it has to come out of margins.

Post by wahnfrieden » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #160

827a wrote: post #152

IMO its more nuanced. They're likely in production ramp-up of the M5 Ultra Mac Studio, for release in the next ~3 months; they have pre-purchased bins of memory from the supply-constrained major memory supplies; and they need as much as they can get because they want to push an M5 Ultra config to 768gb to continue the "you can run local models" story that the M5 Max Macbook Pro started telling last week. Going beyond…

Is Apple telling the "you can run local models" story, or is it third parties?

Post by bombcar » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC

avidphantasm wrote: post #149

zozbot234 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to mean that, but the new M5 Pro and M5 Max have separate CPU and GPU chiplets with an interposer, similar to how the previous generation Ultras were based on connecting two Max full dies. So it's unclear whether there will be any Ultra for the M5.

And here I was hoping they would put an M5 Ultra in a MacBook Pro. Maybe they will add it as an option to the 16” at a later date.

Post by Detrytus » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

rafaelmn wrote: post #161

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also the fact that they were charging $200 to add 8GB of RAM before the prices went up, when that much RAM was something like $70 at retail . The problem then is that when the supply gets more expensive and you were already charging the maximally-extractive price to customers, they can't eat much more of a price increase, so instead most of it has to come out of margins.

I was configuring my M5 MBP preorder and 48=>64 was 250 EUR so not sure if they cut prices or your numbers are outdated ?

Post by lolive » Sun, Mar 08, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

827a wrote: post #152

IMO its more nuanced. They're likely in production ramp-up of the M5 Ultra Mac Studio, for release in the next ~3 months; they have pre-purchased bins of memory from the supply-constrained major memory supplies; and they need as much as they can get because they want to push an M5 Ultra config to 768gb to continue the "you can run local models" story that the M5 Max Macbook Pro started telling last week. Going beyond…