Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#471

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:10 PM UTC

ActorNightly wrote: post #455

mark_l_watson wrote: post #363

I run a lot of local models (I am always experimenting) on my 32G M2-Pro MacMini - I would love to upgrade. The financial aspects don’t work however: I can learn and experiment with what I have for local models, and I pay as I go on FireWorks.ai for open model inferencing and no matter how much I use this service my monthly bill is between $10 and $40 and much faster than any reasonable home rig. Hybrid ‘small local’…

Honest question - why are you so stuck on Macs for local inference? A 4 GPU linux box with 3090s, which are $1500 a piece right now, will blow this thing out of the water. Even 2x3090 rig will run most of the good local models like Gemma4:31b at 100+ tok/sec The VRAM of the GPUs are MUCH faster than the unified ram within Apple Silicon. The only difference is the initial model load, which takes longer from disk to VR…

[deleted]

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#472

Post by darg01 » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:11 PM UTC

saturn8601 wrote: post #451

VCFundedGenYer wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the Zune actually was a better media player than the ipod in almost every way. That wasn't a false statement. The issue was the abysmal marketing and "me too" attitude Microsoft had (and still has).

I recall reading this story of some user doing a sync with Zune on their new computer. The computer had no songs on it and the Zune synced with that machine and wiped all the existing music off his Zune without warning him(or something like that its been years). I recall thinking, yep thats Microsoft. And to this day I still encounter dumb ways of thinking in many of their products. The endless negative stories I hea…

I was a zune user. I had my music organised meticulously and could simply drag and drop to my zune from my (parents) windows desktop. It was simple and it was fantastic.

Then I got a iPod so I needed to download iTunes. I downloaded iTunes, it told me to import my music. I imported my meticulously organised collection. It duplicated every single file into the iTunes approved format (AAC?) - my meticulous collection was now less meticulous, messy even.

It caused me to swear off Apple products for decades. Though it also led me to some very basic programming in order to delete the duplicates. I was only partially successful.

Programming led me to use Linux, before I eventually moved over to Mac. I like to think this was their plan all along.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#473

Post by xyst » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:12 PM UTC

Now if only I can natively run Linux on their hardware.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#474

Post by criddell » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:12 PM UTC

aurmc wrote: post #444

criddell wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering hard drives were $10k / GB in the Mac SE/30 days, that feels like a bargain too.

Sure, yes, compared to the prices of storage 35 years ago, it's a bargain. Compared to the prices of storage today, when people are presumably buying the product, it's actually a bad price.

Sure, but this thread started with somebody pointing out that these computer prices are in line with Mac SE/30 prices. I'm just carrying that over to cover storage and it's even more amazing how much we get for so little money.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#475

Post by varispeed » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

bilbo0s wrote: post #190

varispeed wrote: post #146

512GB late october sounds lame. and 512GB is so 2025. Give us 1TB version. Where is the competitive spirit?

> Where is the competitive spirit? To be fair, where is the competitor at this form factor?

Xiaomi is coming. Hopefully they'll make 1TB box.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#476

Post by formvoltron » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

recursivedoubts wrote: post #34

Even w/the pricing spike, inflation adjusted we are back to roughly the prices of a new Mac SE/30 for something that can beat a turing test w/o sweating. I yield the floor to no one when it comes to pessimism, but that's incredible.

Yo... the Se/30 was worth it. dual floppies was so lame

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#477

Post by TruthSHIFT » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

ActorNightly wrote: post #455

mark_l_watson wrote: post #363

I run a lot of local models (I am always experimenting) on my 32G M2-Pro MacMini - I would love to upgrade. The financial aspects don’t work however: I can learn and experiment with what I have for local models, and I pay as I go on FireWorks.ai for open model inferencing and no matter how much I use this service my monthly bill is between $10 and $40 and much faster than any reasonable home rig. Hybrid ‘small local’…

Honest question - why are you so stuck on Macs for local inference? A 4 GPU linux box with 3090s, which are $1500 a piece right now, will blow this thing out of the water. Even 2x3090 rig will run most of the good local models like Gemma4:31b at 100+ tok/sec The VRAM of the GPUs are MUCH faster than the unified ram within Apple Silicon. The only difference is the initial model load, which takes longer from disk to VR…

Upgrading RAM is still probably cheaper than spending $6000 on a linux box. You're correct that inference will be much faster on the Linux box. But, the mac's unified memory can load larger models. And as OP mentions, it's still hard to beat cloud pricing at home.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#478

Post by wilg » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

anshumankmr wrote: post #6

>fluid frame rates in demanding games like Mixtape. not getting on that bandwagon but wasn't that not the most demanding game as its a just a nonstop cutscene.

cutscenes are often the most demanding part of a game!

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#479

Post by kccqzy » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

derwiki wrote: post #176

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...*

Reading Infinite Games, they tell an anecdote about a Microsoft exec on a flight telling an Apple exec that the Zune was a way better portable music player than the iPod. The Apple exec was just “yup, you’re probably right” and then soon after the iPhone dropped

That just sounds like a standard introvert response when one doesn’t want to walk.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#480

Post by wilg » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 6:21 PM UTC

tshaddox wrote: post #445

throwfaraway135 wrote: post #413

"M6 features a powerful, larger 12-core GPU that provides higher geometry rates and updated Dynamic Caching to deliver stunning visuals and fluid frame rates in demanding games like Mixtape." Why choose the worst game of the year? Just because it's made by the daughter of Larry Ellison?

I've never heard of Mixtape, but I'm surprised to see such a weirdly contemptuous post about a video game get so much traction on HN. At a glance, critical review aggregators are showing 80+ on this game. Is there some drama or culture war issue here that I'm missing?

Yes, it's a culture war thing and the commenters here are participating in it: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/mixtape-is-at-the-ce...