New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra • Hacker News Board

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#411

Post by gizajob » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC

xdertz wrote: post #118

varispeed wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They have no fab for CPUs, they are manufactured by Samsung and TSMC. The bottleneck is in manufacturing RAM not CPUs so there is nothing Apple can do here.

Recently Micron pointed that finger and threw that shade in Apple’s direction saying that their priority for years has been squeezing margins in their favour, so there wasn’t the slack in the system to build the fab capacity that is now desperately required given the sudden need for RAM now that there’s a cause to use it in AI Inference.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#412

Post by make3 » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

blints wrote: post #12

10 grand for 256GB memory. Likely double that for 512GB, but won't be available or finalized until October. Thunderbolt 5 is highest bandwidth external IO available at 120Gb/s. 1.2TB/s claimed max internal memory bandwidth. Not exactly "future proof" for >1T parameter models but good for targeting specific lower-parameter models, or if you can rely on pipeline parallelism and run a cluster.

It will always be wasteful to have a GPU sleeping next to you 99% of the time. Something like OpenRouter is the solution imho, for me at least. I realize that that some people care about privacy more though, and I respect that.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#413

Post by kristianp » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

Their statement about sharing an Ultra for an office LLM server is a little misleading. The tokens/second would be too slow for any business use case. You'd want to buy multiple GPUs for that purpose, probably Nvidia, despite the extra cost.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#414

Post by novafunc » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC

simgt wrote: post #122

PaulRobinson wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking about this a fair bit recently. We make a lot of price/performance compromises for having an attached screen and keyboard on our computer. That was what got me started. Then I remembered the days of having to go to a special corner of the house to use a computer, vs now when I have a computer with me all the time. In my bag, on the sofa, on the train. Hell, I'm writing this on the work MBP while wa…

I've done that, but I chose a Framework Desktop instead. The latest Fedora is closer to Snow Leopard than anything Apple has to offer. Downside is that I still have my MBP because of the lock-in and occasionally pick it up to do computer stuff in weird places.

While I do love Fedora, I Wouldn't call it a "Snow Leopard". Around August 5th, there's been numerous regressions when it comes to AMD graphics. First a kernel regression that resulting in artifacts on the desktop. Then a linux-firmware regression with decoding AV1 videos that resulting in 4 prominent columns and constant major color shifts.

Its update policy can result in this sort of regressions in a middle of a release. One thing that's nicer thing about macOS is that a released version doesn't regress as much (even if they are buggier at release; but in that case you can just wait until a later point release to upgrade).

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#415

Post by tomcam » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:18 PM UTC

tarruda wrote: post #343

joshstrange wrote: post #7

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.

> not that Apple prices weren’t insane before the ram/ssd shortages Funny that after the price started to increase last year (I think October/November), there was a window of a few months where Apple prices stayed the same as they were before, thus making apple prices actually good when compared to the rest of the market. It was a unique opportunity to have acquired a 512G M3 ultra for $10k.

You're killing me here lol

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#416

Post by spockz » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

srmatto wrote: post #360

SwellJoe wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's in the same ballpark as two 128GB AI machines like the Asus GX10 or DGX Spark or Strix Halo. And, it seems very likely to perform better than either of those for inference. And, 256GB brings some pretty good models into play. But, that doesn't make it a good deal. It just means the Apple tax doesn't apply when stacked up against AI machines and with memory prices being so out of whack. I'm still planning to wa…

Is there anything in the works or planned that suggests the RAMpocalypse will end anytime soon? e.g. new fabs being built, permitted, planned, etc...

There was an article last week that a Chinese RAM manufacturer was planning to add new fabs to be able to ramp up. More or less simultaneously there was also an article on Apple considering switching to using china sourced RAM for China destined devices.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#417

Post by fallinditch » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:28 PM UTC

ahknight wrote: post #145

simgt wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done that, but I chose a Framework Desktop instead. The latest Fedora is closer to Snow Leopard than anything Apple has to offer. Downside is that I still have my MBP because of the lock-in and occasionally pick it up to do computer stuff in weird places.

I got used to the hub-and-spoke model at home (previously thin terminal, server-client, etc.). Big ole desktop/server and smaller devices that (ab)use it remotely. Roam around with a smaller computer/tablet/phone. Tailscale to bind it all together. If your computing needs line up, it's a very serviceable approach.

Yes, this is my approach now: a home server with devices connected via Tailscale. I'm starting to do more from my phone and less on the laptop.

I haven't added my iPad to the Tailnet yet but i reckon that it could become a very comfortable and productive device for me.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#418

Post by entrope » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

8xeh wrote: post #375

jmalicki wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for LLM inference speed, macs suck as a server and are pretty expensive, why wouldn't you get a Linux box?

My Mac mini m1 is a fantastic home server. Years ago I realized running a 100W PC all the time was REALLY expensive, so I switched to an old linux laptop at 30W (about $4/month). That helped, but I moved to the m1 mac specifically for the power efficiency. It does all the things my linux server did, and it does them at 6W (75¢/month). I've found no competitor with similar performance that can run in such a low power…

It takes almost 8 years for $3.25/mo of electricity savings to break even with a $300 difference in up front cost. Assuming the time value of money is zero, that is.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#419

Post by WillAdams » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

harikb wrote: post #362

PaulRobinson wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking about this a fair bit recently. We make a lot of price/performance compromises for having an attached screen and keyboard on our computer. That was what got me started. Then I remembered the days of having to go to a special corner of the house to use a computer, vs now when I have a computer with me all the time. In my bag, on the sofa, on the train. Hell, I'm writing this on the work MBP while wa…

Is there an option to "use the remote computer just as it was local" even between two Macs? Sure, terminal/ssh is enough for most use-cases, but this is something I expected from Apple as builtin. I can tailscale into my home network, but what next? VNC/TeamViewer/Remote Desktop setups are all mediocre imho.

Well, there used to be nxhosting back in the NeXT days, which I _really_ miss.

Unfortunately, it relied on Display PostScript and Quartz née Display PDF isn't architected to allow that sort of remote display/access on a per application level.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#420

Post by angoragoats » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 9:45 PM UTC

speedgoose wrote: post #289

angoragoats wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the RTX 6000 will run circles around the Mac studio in just about every way. Memory bandwidth is literally the only spec where Apple is competitive, and while high memory bandwidth is necessary for LLMs to perform well, many people strangely don't understand that memory bandwidth alone is not sufficient.

Energy efficiency is in another league with the Mac Studio for local workloads. I can run agents using deepseek v4 flash or Qwen 3.8 on my m3 ultra and it will be lukewarm and the fan will eventually start blowing softly.

I’ve run the numbers on this, and an optimized nVidia build can meet or beat Apple platforms in terms of tokens per watt, which is the most important efficiency metric if what you care about is using the least amount of energy to generate a given response.

Yes, the Mac might get lukewarm, but it will take 2-3+ times longer to do the same task.