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

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#451

Post by kllrnohj » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:08 AM UTC

iAMkenough wrote: post #297

kridsdale1 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumer hardware means: - 120v input plug - not rack-mounted - has a video out port

Ah, a MacBook Professional is Consumer /s

Apple's use of "Professional" is just a fancy alias for high end or premium, it in no way indicates anything about being "for professionals" (most extreme example: "professional" iPhone models)

Hence why they had to make up the "Studio" brand for the workstation market, because they'd already fully removed any meaning from "Professional"

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#452

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC

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.

I used laptops for years.

However, after retiring, I realized I never undocked my MBP.

So I got an M4Pro Mini, and I've been thrilled. If I ever get to where I travel a lot, again, I'll get a laptop, but I don't see a need, right now.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#453

Post by nl » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC

iAMkenough wrote: post #297

kridsdale1 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumer hardware means: - 120v input plug - not rack-mounted - has a video out port

Ah, a MacBook Professional is Consumer /s

In computing "Pro" is not the opposite of "Consumer".

Putting aside the fact it is a marketing label, "Pro" usually means "designed for work" while "Consumer" (in this context) means "doesn't need a special environment".

In computing the distinction is primarily noise, power and cooling requirements.

If a computer is designed to use home power and is quiet enough to use without annoying people and doesn't require specialist cooling then it is a consumer device, even if it is used for work.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#454

Post by satvikpendem » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:24 AM UTC

mjcohen wrote: post #386

jrrv wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, if you're like me then "if you work from anywhere in your house, then you're never at work."

[flagged]

Or you're never at work, like they said.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#455

Post by Havoc » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:33 AM UTC

nico_h wrote: post #341

Just insane RAM price. Can’t wait for the bubble to pop. AI is useful but not at the currently unsustainable price (too expensive for the provided value to corporate customers at too cheap per token vs the actual cost of creating it)

You’ll be waiting a while. Ram capacity is bought out for 2027

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#456

Post by edschofield » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:39 AM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #431

setgree wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed "up to an 80-core GPU, and a staggering 512GB of unified memory" Staggering?? I can count on no hands the number of times that a fact or figure has caused me to stagger.

When you get that credit card bill for the 80 core, 512 gig, 16 TB storage box, you might stagger a bit.

Thanks for the laugh!

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#457

Post by Havoc » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:42 AM UTC

AbsurdCensor wrote: post #29

tarr11 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is unified ram? RAM and VRAM as one thing?

Big ole pool of very fast ram that can be accessed by the CPU and GPU. Lets you run larger models. AMD does the same thing with Strix Halo. I have a 128gb machine at home, and have had difficulties running 120b models, but 70b and below run pretty well.

> Big ole pool of very fast ram

It’s more that it’s a very parallel architecture than fast.

The LPDDR5X under the hood is slower than what you’d find in a graphics card vram of years ago

That’s why you get consumer macs with 512gb while GPU makers are reluctant to give you more than 16gb unless you pay dearly. It’s not the same kind of mem

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#458

Post by angoragoats » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:43 AM UTC

aurareturn wrote: post #447

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.

Mac studio wins in memory capacity, price, perf/watt and value. RTX 6000 wins in performance, if your model can fit into the VRAM. There are very obvious and clear advantages to a Mac Studio. It's an entire system for one and you're getting a world class CPU as well.

> Mac studio wins in memory capacity, price, perf/watt and value.

[citation needed]. I have personally specced out and built an nvidia GPU-based machine which after some optimization, handily beat the Mac Studio in terms of tokens/watt for LLM inference with most models. This was in the M2 Ultra era, and I haven't run the numbers for the later generations, but nvidia's cards have gotten faster just as Apple's CPUs/GPUs have, so I would guess that it's still possible to do.

> RTX 6000 wins in performance, if your model can fit into the VRAM.

"if your model can fit into the VRAM" can be true for the Mac as well.

> There are very obvious and clear advantages to a Mac Studio.

There are certain advantages for sure, depending on your use case. They may _seem_ to be obvious, but as evidenced above, I believe that many people overestimate the Mac's superiority on the metrics you cite when comparing a Mac vs. a dedicated GPU for LLM inference.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#459

Post by SoftTalker » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:43 AM UTC

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.

I can't really imagine buying a new computer in this market. But I also wonder how long it will be before prices drop again, if ever.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#460

Post by seanmcdirmid » Wed, Aug 26, 2026, 12:43 AM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #188

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought my refurbished M3 Max MBP with 64 GB for $3k a couple of years ago. Before Ethan I never spent more than $2k for a computer.

The “spend” and “want” number might differ, depending on one’s financial state. I know I’ve purchased plenty for less than $3K. But the one I wanted …

I'm old and established (after spending most of my life not), but ya, I get what you are saying. It was a huge leap for me to spend $3k on a laptop.

Before local LLMs became a thing, I had completely lost interest in buying anything but the cheapest laptop. It felt like "personal computing" was a solved problem. But...it actually isn't, and this is exciting.