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Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

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Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#241

Post by Lwerewolf »

SSLy wrote: post #139
dannyw wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DRAM market is cyclical. I don’t think anyone truly knows when, but it will happen. Fab capacity is being bought online; there’s just lead time. Noticeably greater intelligence is being achieved at the same number of parameters (see: Qwen3.8). I think the future will be bright, it might be a matter of time. And for tinkers, a used Epyc + DDR4 server can be great fun and epic value.

Looks like I'll be sporting my 5800X3D + DDR4 + 9070 XT gaming box for a little while. Too bad the CPU's ST is slower than my MB Air m4.

Welcome to the club. If you're _really_ competitive in cs2, I'd swap out to a 9800x3d setup, but it's still a maybe. Very little reason to upgrade right now other than to run LLMs.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#242

Post by sanderjd »

paxys wrote: post #114
intrasight wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is downpayment on a house. I would buy the house and just pay for tokens as needed. The house will get more valuable and that wealth would buy a lot of tokens in the future - which will probably get cheaper. EDIT: or buy AAPL. If I had bought Apple stock instead of buying a Mac LC II in 1992, then I would have about $2 million in Apple stock.

Or more simply – $25K (+ tax) put in a savings account will earn about enough interest to pay for a $100/month AI subscription indefinitely. And at the end of it you still have the $25K.

Isn't there something to be said for owning your own hardware though?

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#243

Post by cyanydeez »

giwook wrote: post #239
Zylokloto wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not find it funny tbh. I'm very very surprised that Xiaomi matches Apples speed even with the newest release, its not diminishing Xiaomis success.

It's interesting to see how defensive some of these pro-China posters get on HN and elsewhere. I'm genuinely curious why there seems to be an inferiority complex here with respect to America/American companies.

I find pro apple comments funnier; but you know, everyones got their own rose colored glasses.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#244

Post by ericd »

iammrpayments wrote: post #134
ericd wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's some mental inertia around what a computer is and what it's worth. This thing can build custom software for you, mostly autonomously. It can monitor things happening on the internet that are relevant to you, in a holistic and flexible way. We have one crawling the web for local events we'll like, and it judges them based on what it knows about us, and it tells us about the best matches every weekend,…

[flagged]

Weird swipe, I'm not trying to sell it to you, this is just where I see it going, and why these things are going to sell (and why 512 gig M3 Ultra Mac Studios have skyrocketed in demand/price). It's not been an empty promise, in that it's been providing lots of very concrete value to us already.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#245

Post by kphorn »

paxys wrote: post #114
intrasight wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is downpayment on a house. I would buy the house and just pay for tokens as needed. The house will get more valuable and that wealth would buy a lot of tokens in the future - which will probably get cheaper. EDIT: or buy AAPL. If I had bought Apple stock instead of buying a Mac LC II in 1992, then I would have about $2 million in Apple stock.

Or more simply – $25K (+ tax) put in a savings account will earn about enough interest to pay for a $100/month AI subscription indefinitely. And at the end of it you still have the $25K.

It’s basically impossible to compete on economic terms with deeply subsidized hardware that is widely available to rent or as a service with zero commitment.

For general inference there’s no ROI that makes this work vs subscriptions.

25k for computer now, plus 9-10% sales tax, plus operating cost, plus time and cost for R&D tinkering with models, harnesses, and infra (assuming highly capable engineering talent that can get paid for your human inference) vs a HEAVILY subsidized subscription at 200 per month with free R&D has a pretty long ROI (15 years?)

At API costs, it’s like 6 months if you’re heavy on inference. For training, specialized models will have their own ROI that makes this worthwhile. Then debate renting capacity and the platform to choose

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#246

Post by zimzam »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #230

0% APR for 12 months (24 for iPhones only?) from Apple Financial Services for a device that can approach or even exceed what we were paying for new cars just a few years ago. Apple is definitely making bank off these financing offers, and with very little risk as unlike a car these Mac Studios don’t lose 20% of their value when you drive them off the lot. Interesting times, to say the least!

How are they "making bank" by giving out 0% loans?

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#247

Post by kjs3 »

arcatech wrote: post #128
coldtea wrote: post #92

> 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?

The Pro and Ultra variants are the ones with the higher RAM amounts. They didn’t announce the M6 Pro yet.

They've announced there won't be a M6 Pro in favor of getting M7 out the door.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#249

Post by yipinwong »

Zylokloto wrote: post #217
bayindirh wrote: post #117

I know, this is a bit of a meaningless comment, but it's funny in a way. Feels like late 90s again: - Xiaomi: We have matched Apple in CPU performance. - Apple: *Meep Meep...*

I do not find it funny tbh. I'm very very surprised that Xiaomi matches Apples speed even with the newest release, its not diminishing Xiaomis success.

[flagged]

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#250

Post by ericd »

maherbeg wrote: post #123
SilverSlash wrote: post #25

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?

If I can get Sol level capabilities on a $20k machine, then it is well worth it for my employer to buy me that machine for work as a workstation. When you start paying in tokens vs subscription costs due to enterprise agreements, you really start to see how much cash utilizing frontier models at the frontier costs (and I'm efficiently using luna and other models where possible!)

Yeah, I'm not sure people realize how expensive ZDR/Zero Data Retention is, and how important it is to a lot of businesses, this kind of thing starts looking really cheap really fast if it's a reasonable substitute.
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