Why can't RAM be done inhouse? It's probably simpler than a CPU.. right?
This is what I’ve been wondering as well.
Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
191–200 of 264 posts
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
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64 was 250 EUR so not sure if they cut prices or your numbers are outdated ?
Prices in the US are usually much lower than in Europe. I just checked and 48->64 ram bump is still $200 I just did a 14" MBP with M5 Max, 128GB RAM, 4TB SSD, nano-texture display. Price difference is $5849 vs 7004 EUR ($8136).
I'd say half of that difference is that we have VAT included in price.
But my point is that's a 16GB jump for 200$ not 8GB
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interestingly, the "ultra" Mac Studio released a year ago was based on the older M3, not M4. Apparently, the work to "ultra-fy" a CPU is significant (which makes sense) so there can be a lag. Not that they have to follow pattern, but the a Mac Studio ultra released later this year might be based on M4. Or one based on M5 might be released a year or more from now.
The M4 Max lacks the UltraFusion interconnect, making an M4 Ultra impossible. We might however see an M5 Ultra due to the new Fusion Architecture in the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips (just announced for the latest MacBook Pro), which uses a high-bandwidth die-to-die interconnect to bond two dies into a single unified SoC—similar in concept to UltraFusion but evolved for better scaling, efficiency, and features like per-GPU…
> M4 Max lacks the UltraFusion interconnect
Any idea why? Wasn't that on the M1?
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#194I’ve been in tech for a long time and have seen RAM shortages and price spikes before. This one’s fairly bad but they resolve in 1-3 years.
I've been in tech for ~40 years now and I've never seen anything like this. The downstream repercussions on consumer products that have no access to cheap memory is devastating and is an extinction level event for most low-cost providers of cell phones, tvs, etc.
>I've been in tech for ~40 years now and I've never seen anything like this.
Then how do you not remember the DRAM shortage of the late 1980s?
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#195IMO 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…
What’s the price of that beast? #meCryingTearsOfBlood
Let's assume a Mac Studio M5 would start at $1999, and that a M5 Max upgrade 128 GB would be about the 1000 it is now. Then an M5 Ultra 768 would be something like $1999 + 1000 + $4000 - cheaper than the current top of the line (which will never happen) so I'd presume about the same $10,000.
Or they could finally make the Mac Pro respectable and have it two M5 Ultra Mac Studios stuck together (or give it NUMA RAM: on chip + expandable).
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regret on a $10k desktop rendered obsolete for purpose (the 512GB of RAM only has so many applications) months later is not a great look. It's good long-term brand value thinking to close the regrets window earlier. Definitely “Caution” stage: https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/mac-studio/
Perhaps not? Think of all the Chrome tabs you could keep open at one time!
512 GB of RAM? Could probably have five tabs and two electron apps at the same time!
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
The M4 Max lacks the UltraFusion interconnect, making an M4 Ultra impossible. We might however see an M5 Ultra due to the new Fusion Architecture in the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips (just announced for the latest MacBook Pro), which uses a high-bandwidth die-to-die interconnect to bond two dies into a single unified SoC—similar in concept to UltraFusion but evolved for better scaling, efficiency, and features like per-GPU…
> M4 Max lacks the UltraFusion interconnect Any idea why? Wasn't that on the M1?
I suspect that the cost/benefit isn't there. Those who need the "biggest Ultra" will be happy with the previous generation or so, and so they'll refresh that on a 2 or 3 year cycle.
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#198Earlier 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 ?
US prices are often low enough that it's almost worth the flight just to grab one.
14' MBP M5 Pro 64GB - $2999 or 3449 €
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
It costs the same, we just mark it as an opportunity cost of unloading the memory on the spot market. If I buy contracts for 1 gold bar at $500, and the gold price runs to $1200, I can either continue to market my gold-containing product for the same profit margin, or I can unload all that gold for $1200/bar and make a profit of $700/bar. If my profit margin is high and it doesn't take many gold bars to make a thousa…
You’re thinking only finance. Their goal in buying the contract is to secure the good. The ability to maintain price will allow them to sell more units which is the number they want to show.
More importantly it'll probably get some people to switch, and potentially they have a customer for life now.
Re: Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage
#200Inventory is tight too, if you look at delivery/shipping times for Mac Studio and Mac Mini, I'm seeing April/May
i just walked into a microcenter yesterday where not only did they have a huge stock of mac mini, they are all advertised 15% off and runs openclaw.
https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?fq=ca... it's even mentioned on each one online