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New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

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Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#91
post #87

Due to pricing insanity (not that Apple prices weren’t insane before the ram/ssd shortages) I’m not in the market but I do wonder if my next computer should be a Mac Studio instead of a MBP that lives its life docked. Might be better to just run a Studio and Neo for the very few times I actually need remote capabilities.

Having replaced my MacBook with a Mac Mini, I would reconsider. The MacBook is just such a _complete_ package. Great speakers, great keyboard, fantastic screen, the fingerprint sensor thingy.. Takes a lot of gear to match that

If your computer never leaves your desk, the iMac is pretty competitive with those features. Even comes with a TouchID keyboard.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#92

Due to pricing insanity (not that Apple prices weren’t insane before the ram/ssd shortages) I’m not in the market but I do wonder if my next computer should be a Mac Studio instead of a MBP that lives its life docked. Might be better to just run a Studio and Neo for the very few times I actually need remote capabilities.

No post body was provided.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#93
post #80

Here's me trying to justify this when I can run frontier models in the cloud for less than the monthly finance charge for this beast.

If you like to experiment with training / finetuning / etc on LLMs, these are actually incredibly ‘cheap’. 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth unlocks a lot with 256GB unified, and agentic AI is pretty good at optimising performance. For comparison, to get 256GB with NVIDIA, you’re looking at a DIY workstation build (need pcie lanes), and like $70k? The spark’s ~250gb/s bandwidth doesn’t really count here.

To experiment, its still al ot cheaper to prepare everything locally and then just rent a GPU Node on all of these non hyperscalers.

1-2$ / hour.

I'm not regretting my setup at home as it got paid by my company which makes sense here, but paying for electricity is quite high and makes already 0.3$/hour alone.

I would argue, the most interesting use case for running it at home is some personal agent which you want to run 24/7.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Computers are never "future proof". Upgradeable components however could go a loooong stretch towards that goal. It can't be that hard to follow a common form factor for at least the housing across two or three generations to allow a reuse of everything but the main PCB.

The way the Apple M-series does ram that might be difficult to pull off.

> The way the Apple M-series does ram that might be difficult to pull off.

Well it might be an idea to keep the layout of the mainboard and connectors the same.

That way, instead of having to upgrade the whole machine, all it would need is a new mainboard. Framework for example managed to pull that off, and in mobile at that, where constraints are much worse than for a desktop computer.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#96
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all you want to do is remote into your desktop, Neo seems like overkill. Why not just get a $200 Chromebook and save yourself $500?

Because the screen, keyboard, and especially trackpad on a $200 Chromebook sucks?

Also: the enclosure, and the hinges.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#98
post #3

Bizarre there isn’t a 1TB RAM option hidden away for the excessively frivolous or VC funded.

It's more bizarre that Apple got caught with pants down. Focused on CPUs and ignored RAM.

Seems like miscalculation. If they had their own fab for RAM, they could completely corner the market today.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 256GB option is +$4,000 - the overall price for 512GB setup would probably be $20k!

It needs to be a little less than double the overall price for 256GB option, otherwise it's better to get 2 256GB and link them.

you can't link onchip memory.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#100
post #87

Due to pricing insanity (not that Apple prices weren’t insane before the ram/ssd shortages) I’m not in the market but I do wonder if my next computer should be a Mac Studio instead of a MBP that lives its life docked. Might be better to just run a Studio and Neo for the very few times I actually need remote capabilities.

Having replaced my MacBook with a Mac Mini, I would reconsider. The MacBook is just such a _complete_ package. Great speakers, great keyboard, fantastic screen, the fingerprint sensor thingy.. Takes a lot of gear to match that

Not an option if you're trying to drive 3 decent screens.
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