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Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

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Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#181
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?

At the price points they are hitting, can’t afford over 32 GB on the cheaper model.

256 memory gets you to like 11k. So like 15-20k.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who works in AI now, I have found it pretty amazing that Apple basically didn't do much with AI software, and focused more on the hardware side. I think this is what the future of AI is going to look like, local models run on your mac for your workflow. It's possible that they're working on their own LLM that's going to work very well on their chips, and possibly outperform anything out there when they do…

|It's possible that they're working on their own LLM Yep, Siri AI; they’re doing it in public.

‘Apple Foundation Model’

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#184
post #131

will be great fun if one M5 Ultra with 512GB memory at 1.2T bandwidth capable of doing 3x smallish local model inferencing each at Opus 4.5 level of intelligence.

The memory bandwidth and size seems to be there, but what is the tokens per sec on like a qwen model? And you can basically do 3x opus 4.5 on the $100 a month claude plan. Your payback will be near infinity years after electricity.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#185
I bought a 128GB M4 Max Mac Studio a while back, and for a while I thought like I had done really well to buy it when I did.

The problem I'm having now is that no models are targeting RAM of that size. Everything is either much smaller, targeting laptops, or much larger, targeting hardware well out of reach of enthusiasts.

Please, AI people, start making models targeting 128GB machines again. The last interesting one was Qwen 3.5 122B.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#186
post #159

Apple still has the best hardware so I moved to it for the last few years, but the closed software ecosystem is terrible for taking advantage of it. I wasn't able to debug network errors (restartin my Mac worked), Metal was missing low level disassembly / debugging tools (there is some hard to use UI), but the worst thing was the inflexible windowing system. Even getting all the window handles on all screens/desktops…

On what hardware you running Omarchy?

Just Beelink, but it doesn't matter at all.

I ordered an ASUS Zephyrus G16 with 5090 NVIDIA card + 1.9kg (quite an overkill, and I know that I will have to limit power output), but hasn't arrived yet.

But what's fun is that I love QML+QuickShell with its hot reloading, Hyprland with its Lua support.

With AI nowdays it's just so easy to do deep UI changes that wasn't possible a year ago.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#187

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?

you can run open source models in the privacy of your own home :)

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#188
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there anything comparable that runs Linux, doesn't necessarily look as good, but is perhaps (a lot) cheaper/fixable? Or is this really pretty optimal? I mean this is not nvidia based right? It's all custom? So we can use it under Asahi perhaps? I want to get something for my company to run local models, wondering what would be a good option.

Asahi was stuck at M3 last time I checked it out.

M2 even.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#189
post #16

Apple Studio with maxed out M5 Ultra, 256GB RAM and 16TB storage is 18,299$. The 512GB RAM version apparently is coming in October, considering that the difference between 96GB and 256GB is priced at 4000$, the 512GB upgrade must be eye watering. So, on the mini the RAM upgrade runs at 25$ per GB on all tiers, the same as the Studio therefore the upgrade to 512 will probably cost 6400$. The fully maxed out Apple Stud…

Ten years ago a bought an expensive MBP because I do a lot of stats in R, Python etc that benefited from it. But the next Mac I’ll buy will be a much lower-end model, because it’s just easier these days to do that work in notebooks in the cloud.
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